Joseph Story

“ It may be said that viewing the fund here as proceeds, it has lost the legal qualities of the specific thing; that it is turned into mere currency; and not specifically liable any more than would be the general means of the owners.
It is a well established rule of common law and equity, that the proceeds or pecuniary result of the thing is regarded as the representative of the thing; as the thing itself: and that money may be specifically appropriated, and bound, if it can be traced, and, as a fund, identified. And such is the principle too of admiralty. ”

“ There has been an award allowing the assignees freight, as a distinct item; and the owners are insolvent. If the master of the ship were living, he would have a direct lien upon the freight for his disbursements, and liability for wages; and through him the seamen would have the means of asserting a claim on it. We can perceive no principle then, why, in the present case, the seamen may not justly assert a claim on the freight; if the proceeds of the ship are exhausted, without satisfying the amount of their wages. No authority has been produced against it ”

“ The cases of seamen earning wages, where there has been a capture and recapture, or a capture, condemnation, and ultimate restoration of the ship, all show that the seaman is legally interested for his wages in no concern of the voyage, except the ship's safety. And, further, it is in these cases settled: 1st. That it is the duty of the seamen to remain with the vessel until the first adjudication, and until the hope of recovery shall thus appear to be gone; and when the vessel is sold and restored, they are paid their wages out of the proceeds, up to the time they so adhere to the vessel. ”

“ In the cases of prize, when the rights of parties, immediately springing from the capture, are settled, the jurisdiction ceases; but not so with this doctrine of lien on the proceeds of the res ipsa, which would make the jurisdiction, it would seem, interminable. The ship is sold for goods; the goods are converted into money; the money is invested in land; yet it is still proceeds subject to the lien, and liable to be followed by the admiralty court, and subject to its jurisdiction. ”

“ The first question is, whether in point of fact the libellants have substantially sustained the allegations in the libels and petition in respect to the voyage; to their ignorance of the intended illicit trade; to the seizure of the ship and to their own imprisonment and separation from it: which are necessary to maintain their claim for wages. ”

“ If the act of the king of Spain does not conclude the rights of the appellants, it cannot be pretended that such can be the effect of the award of the commissioners under the Florida treaty. That award, we have endeavoured to show, was nothing more than the execution of the royal order; or rather was founded on the conclusiveness of that royal order, as a testimonial of the right of the owners to redress at the hands of Spain. And the disobedience of the Spanish authorities was, of itself, a grievance, in behalf of which the commissioners would interpose ”

“ The owners of the property could assign only an interest commensurate with their right; and only so far as the sailors' lien gave the subject free to the owners, had they any right. The lien of the seaman on the thing is fixed and intrinsic; and announced by the law on the very face of the thing to exist: and thus carrying notice of it to all who claim any benefit out of the specific object; as much so as the law regards all assignees of a chose in action as owner of the equities between the original parties to it, and implicated in them. ”

“ But the imposition practised upon the seamen by the owners, gave them no claim against the Spanish government. The innocency of their intentions might excuse them from punishment, but could not entitle them to reward.
If the seizure were deemed unlawful, and a restoration made, the owners, but not the fund restored, would be liable for all wages; because, with the condemnation of the res, the wages are lost and gone. The restoration of a sum as freight might reattach the lien to the money, if received by or under control of the owners; but not to the money if owned by assignees. ”

“ Thus Spain owed as a debt to our citizens; and she placed funds in the hands of the United States to pay it: thus making the latter trustees for the claims of a particular description; for claims, among others, arising from unlawful seizures. The commissioners of claims under the treaty have decided the seizure in this case to be unlawful; but, admitting the inquiry to be yet open, and that this court should decide the seizure in Chili to have been lawful; what claim would the seamen have to this fund which was to pay debts of which seamen's wages was not one. ”

“ Over the subject of seamen's wages, the admiralty has an undisputed jurisdiction, in rem, as well as in personam; and wherever the lien for the wages exists and attaches upon proceeds, it is the familiar practice of that court to exert its jurisdiction over them, by way of monition to the parties holding the proceeds. ”

“ It will be necessary, therefore, to remand the cause to the circuit court for this purpose; and it is to be understood, in order to avoid any further delays, that the commissioner is to proceed with all reasonable despatch; and is to report to the court the amount due to each seaman as soon as he shall ascertain the same: so that each may have a separate decree (as in libels of this sort he well may) , for his own share, without waiting for any final decree upon the claims of the others. ”

“ There was a sufficient grievance for the redress of the commissioners, in the fact that Spain had by the royal order directed the satisfaction, and that the authorities had not obeyed the direction. The merits of the case, antecedent to the royal order, need not have been presented to the commissioners. The order, and the commissioners in their award, speak too only of a restitution of 'proceeds;' so that the appellants have the benefit of that phrase for the moneys we claim, if there be any force in it. ”

“ If the fund in the hands of the assignees be liable, and the court of admiralty have jurisdiction to enforce it, the libellants are entitled to recover only such proportion of the sum awarded for freight, as was given as a compensation for wages. ”

“ It asserted no right against the ship, that having been condemned and the lien gone; nor did it assume that any freight had been or would be earned, or that any restitution would or might be made by Spain. The pretension of the claimants had no reference to any restoration by Spain, until after the treaty was, in 1819, entered into with Spain. The assignments to the appellees (who alone are here represented) were made in 1819, 1820, and 1821. They are absolute; without any reservation for the seamen's claims. The libel alleges no notice to the assignees of these claims ”

“ So far as this fund is concerned, it is conclusively settled that the seizure was unlawful and the owners not in fault; and the voyage not having been performed, it is only the recovery and receipt of the freight which gives the right to wages, and furnishes the fund for paying them. The entire freight was not allowed by the commissioner. The full amount due as claimed, and proved, was forty thousand dollars; and the amount allowed was only thirteen thousand eight hundred and sixty dollars. As freight then, for the whole voyage, was not allowed; the seamen are entitled to wages pro rata only. ”

“ Now the voyage in respect to them might be wholly tortious and illicit, because it was not within the scope of their contract; and they may have been thereby subjected to all the consequences of an illicit trade, although, as between the owners and the Spanish authorities, the voyage may have been specially permitted as an exception to the general colonial prohibitions, or at least may not have been disapproved of in the particular instance. If the king of Spain had a right to make the seizure, and pursue it to condemnation ”

“ The Warren then entered the port of Talcahuana, and captain Evans went on shore; and the seamen, under a pretence that their depositions were required relative to the death of captain Sterrett, were taken on shore, twenty at a time, and at once put into prison. The officers and the apprentices being put on board the ship, proposed to rescue her, and communicated the purpose of Mr Pollock, who immediately took his baggage and that of captain Evans on shore. Soon afterwards some Spanish officers came on board the Warren, unbent the sails, and unshipped the rudder. ”

“ That nothing is considered as established by them, except that without which they could not have been pronounced; that is, the points of right; and the points of fact, as related to the questions of the right specially under adjudication. ”

“ This is an appeal from a pro forma decree of the circuit court of the district of Maryland, in a case in admiralty, for mariners' wages. The original libel (which was filed in December 1810) was against the owners in personam; alleging among other things, that the libellants (six in number) shipped on bound the Warren in August 1806, to perform a voyage from Baltimore to the northwest coast, thence to Canton in the East Indies, and thence back again to Baltimore; that they proceeded on the voyage ”