The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-08
IN AND ABOUT THE COURTS
$5,oOO ADMIRA LTY SUIT E EG LIN BE-
 FORE ETOWNSEND.

Commercial Gable Company Accuse
 Crew of Schooner William H. Bailey
 of Cutting NIackay-Ben Cable
 Spicy Hearing on the Augur VIII Case
 -Bankruptcy alters.
 Judge Townsend in the United States district court in this city yesterday heard the case of the Commercial Cable company against the schooner William II. Bailey, of Manisquan, N J. The schooner was libelled in this harbor last March. The court ordered an ap- praisal, and it was held that the value for S5.000, but the desendant's liability was limited to the value of the schoon- CT. The case is q novel one for the reason that only one case O. the kind has ever been decided. The case of the Clara Killam, for cutting the French and English cable across the English
 
 In brief the present case Is as follows: On December 29 last while anchored off Red Hook, in New Hook harbor, the schooner's anchor became entangled with something on the bottom The crew hauled it to the surfance and worked for several hours in the task of trying to disentangle it. and then be- ing totally unable to do so they cut the substance with which it was wound. They heard nothing Of the cutting un- til the vesesl was libelled in this city on March last, when it was alleged that the crew had cut the Mackey- Bennett cable, that runs from Pier A, New York, to Cauaso Canada, and from there to Waterville, Ireland. During the trial yesterday the claimant ad- mitted that they had cut something, but denied that it was the libelants' cable. They stated that they were on the regular anchorage ground, and ac- cording to the map locating the cable, it is some distance from the anchorage On being shown piece of the cable under discussion, the crew of the schooner stated that it was not what they had cut.
 In the case of the vessel, the City of Richmond, which cut some of the wires of the Western Union Telegraph company in New York harbor and which is the only case of the kind in this country that had bearing of any kind upon the case, Judge Brown, who cat upon the case, decided that the wires of cable company must be To- cated on the bottom in fixed position, otherwise they are an obstruction to navigation. Attorney J. D. Dewell, jr., counsel for the claimant in the pres ent case, made point of this, and said that without allowing in the least that the substance cut by the crew of the schooner was the, cable in ques- tion, if the libellants' cable was upon the anchorage ground it was an ob- struction to navigation. A point that arose was a question asked by Judge Townsend, who inquired if it was not possible to disentangle the substance wound around the anchor without cut ting it. To this Attorney Dewell re- piled by showing that when substance of the kind described by the crew be- came entangled in two flukes of an an- chor it was often times impossible to dfseantangle it without cutting it. Another point made by counsel for the claimant was that while the Cable company claims to have ascertained the break at ' o'clock on the night in question, the crew of the vessel swear that at the time the cutting was done it | was il o'clock in the evening. Many other points of interest came up during the hearing, and before the case is end- ed number of fine points of law are likely to be involved. The oral argu- ments were all made yesterday after noon
 With Attorney Dewell in the case, counsel for the claimant, appeared MT, Avery F. Cushman of New York, the noted admiralty lawyer. William c. Cook of New York, general counsel for the Commercial Cable company, and George D. Watrous of this city appear ed for the libellant.