Court of admiralty

“ It is now seventy years since the establishment of Courts of Admiralty in these States, yet it seems that the boundary line of their jurisdiction is not yet settled. During all this time it has never been supposed that the definitive sentence or decree of a Court of Admiralty was a lien or could be levied on lands. The dominion of the Admiral was over the sea-the ships and men who frequented it-their contracts and their torts. ”

“ The prerequisite in admiralty to the right to resort to a libel in personam is the existence of a cause of action, maritime in its nature. That a collision upon navigable waters of the United States, between vessels, by the fault of one of such vessels, creates a maritime tort and a cause of action within the jurisdiction of a court of admiralty, is, of course, unquestioned. ”

“ The essential difference, in its very nature, between the right of material men in a court of admiralty under the law and statutes of England as judicially declared and expounded, and their right, by virtue of a local statute giving a maritime lien and a jus in re, as recognized in our own jurisprudence, is yet more clearly brought out in a later case, in which the court of appeal and the house of lords held that, even for supplies furnished in an English port to a foreign vessel, there was no lien, but a mere right to seize her upon process in admiralty. ”

“ Congress did not intend, by the act of 1819, to take away any of the admiralty jurisdiction which had previously been vested in the judiciary. We must resort to the law of nations. The power to 'define and punish' means to inflict personal punishment, and the jurisdiction of admiralty is always in rem. It is untouched by the law. If a pirate were to claim a cargo, would a court give it to him? and yet the court can only condemn or restore. Admiralty law gives to the captors the property in the thing captured; and if the vessel be condemned, what can save the cargo? ”

“ There is not the slightest indication of any intention, or of any professional or lay demands for a change in the time-sanctioned mode of trying suits in admiralty without a jury, from which it can be inferred that by the new grant of jurisdiction of cases 'arising under the Constitution or laws' a drastic innovation was impliedly introduced in admiralty procedure, whereby Congress changed the method by which federal courts had administered admiralty law for almost a century. ”

“ The later and very leading case of Insurance Company v. Dunham, [12] decided A.D. 1870, has greatly enlarged the old ideas as to the extent of admiralty jurisdiction. It really subverts them. In that case, two volumes-long lost-of proceedings in the Colonial courts of admiralty, and but then recently found among the papers of a former registrar of the court and deposited in the library of the Boston Athenaeum, were exhibited. They made a revelation, absolutely new to these times, of our ancient exercise of admiralty jurisdiction. ”

“ The death sentence is always carried out by hanging at the yard-arm; Admiral Byng, however, was shot in 1757. The board of admiralty have, under the Naval Discipline Acts, a general power of suspending, annulling, and modifying sentences which are not capital. The jurisdiction extends to all persons belonging to the navy, to land forces and other passengers on board, shipwrecked crews, spies, persons borne on the books of H.M. ships in commission, and civilians on board who endeavour to seduce others from allegiance. ”

“ For the extent of power conferred on the vice-admiralty courts by their commissions, see 2 Gallis. 470, note, for Commission of Vice-admiralty Court.
'A libel not alleging a thing done 'super altum mare,' nothing appears to give the court jurisdiction; for a man shall not sue in the admiralty only because it is a vessel.' 'The principal' must be shown to be within their jurisdiction. ”

“ There is power, however, reserved to the crown to erect through the admiralty in any British possession any vice-admiralty court, except in India or any British possession having a representative legislature. No vice-admiralty court so established can exercise any jurisdiction except for some purpose relating to prize, the royal navy, the slave trade, foreign enlistment, Pacific Islanders’ protection, and questions relating to treaties or conventions on international law. ”

“ And if case lies at common law on such a state of facts, there seems to be no reason why a libel in admiralty may not lie for the wrong, whenever, as here, it was committed on the sea, and clearly within admiralty jurisdiction over torts. For the admiralty is governed by like principles and facts, as to what constitutes a tort, as prevail in an action at law for damages, and its ingredients are the same, whether happening on land or water. ”

“ The deceptive lure of certainty and comprehensive symmetry should not be permitted to canceal the fact that admiralty's expansion beyond 'the ebb and flow of the tides' has been a response to demands more inclusive than those for mechanical uniformity.
Under the distribution of power between national authority and local law, admiralty has developed for more than a hundred years by rulings of the Court, but not by absolutes either of abstension or extension. ”

“ References to English authorities on admiralty procedure are always misleading unless the jealousy which prevented the expansion of the admiralty court, and strangled its jurisdiction and stunted its growth, and gave the common-law courts such complete power over it in England, is constantly borne in mind. ”

“ In the argument in this court, the counsel, without abandoning the original defence, have expended much learning and ingenuity in an attempt to demonstrate that a court of admiralty in this country, like those of England, has no jurisdiction over contracts of charter-party or affreightment. ”

“ A breach of either contract is the appropriate subject of admiralty jurisdiction.
The action against the stemaer by name, authorized by the statute of California, is a proceeding in the nature and with the incidents of a suit in admiralty. The distinguishing and characteristic feature of such suit is that the vessel or thing proceeded against is itself seized and impleaded as the defendant, and is judged and sentenced accordingly. It is this dominion of the suit in admiralty over the vessel or thing itself which gives to the title made under its decrees validity against all the world. ”

“ Much embarrassment has existed ever since the old twelfth admiralty rule was repealed, as the new rule makes no provision to enforce the payment of contracts for repairs and supplies furnished to domestic ships, except by a libel in personam. Repeated judicial attempts have been made to overcome the difficulty, none of which have proved satisfactory, because they failed to provide a remedy in the admiralty by a proceeding in rem. ”