Samuel Blatchford

“ Rule 15, in admiralty, provides that 'in all suits for damage by collision, the libelant may proceed against the ship and master, or against the ship alone, or against the master or the owner alone, in personam.' This rule, as is well settled, excludes the joining in one suit of the vessel and her owners; but it does not prevent the introduction into the libel of allegations as to the ownership of the vessel at the time of the collision, with a view to a proceeding to obtain such ultimate relief in personam, on the basis of a recovery in rem, as the libelant may be entitled to. ”

“ Marshall, 106 U.S. 578, [S.C.. 1 SUP.CT. REP. 484,] that the required valuation is limited to the matter in dispute in the particular suit in which the jurisdiction is invoked; that any estimate of value as to any matter not actually the subject of that suit must be excluded; and that there cannot be added to the value of the matter determined in that suit any estimate in money, by reason of the probative force of the judgment itself in some subsequent proceeding. ”

“ If the libelant had recovered more than $5,000 in this case, in the circuit court, against the vessel, the claimants could not have appealed to this court, because, for the reasons above set forth, the amount in dispute would have been only $2,100, on the record as it stands. ”