The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-21
APPEAL To
WASHINGTON
Sailors Tax Case Goes 10
Federal Supreme
Court.

The seamen's tax case will be ap.
| realed to the United States Supreme
| Court by the Territory, and the ap-
| plication for the writ of error prepare
| tory to this appeal will be filed today
| by Attorney General Peters. The pa
| pers in the case were being prepared
| yesterday.
| The decision in this case adverse to
| the contention of the government and
| the Tax Assessor, was handed down
| by the Supreme Court on Monday,
| Justices Wilder writing the opinion,
and Hartwell concurring and Chief
Justice F'rear dissenting. The case de-
| cided was that against Captain Tul-
lett, of the Inter-Island Steam Navi-
cation Company, and the decision of
the majority of the court was based
upon that section of the statutes of
the United States which says that a
seaman's wages can not be attached
or made subject to garnishee process.
1t was contended on the part of the
Tax Assessor that this section did not
apply to sailors employed in the Inter-
Island traffic, but the majority opin-
ion of the court holds that there is no
such distinction as the plaintiff set up
when he admitted that a seamans
wages could not be attached or SUBJ
jected to garniShment before judgment
but contended that after Judgment the
statute did not prevent attachment or
garnishment. Justice Wilder concludes
that the contention of plaintiff, that
certain Federal cases relied on by him
hold that wages due a seaman may
be seized under an execution issued
on a valid judgment in state court"
is wrong and accordingly the decision
of the District Magistrate is reversed
and the order of attachment is dis
missed
In his dissenting opinion Chief JUS
tice Frear held:
THE reason of the statute is found
in the improvident character of sea-
men and the peculiar circumstances
under which they are placed and the
consequent need of their protection. To
permit a retention of their wages pend
ing a suit of uncertain duration and
result would often work a great hard
ship upon them, but to allow their
wages to be applied in payment of
just debt conclusively determined by
judgment would not be a hardship in
legal sense. The object of the statute
is to prevent suspension of wages by
attachment or garnishment pending an
action that may turn out to be I'M
founded, and not to prevent their ap-
plication on execution to the payment
of a just debt. In a certain sense a
payment of a Seamans just debt would
be a payment on his account.
Il fully agree with the conclusions
of the Federal courts. Even if my
own impression We're the other way, L
should feel that in the absence of any
decision to the contrary, I ought to fol-
low the construction placed by three
Federal courts in this, the ninth cir
cult, on a Federal statute, especially
when the question is at least a doubt
full one and that construction is favor
able to our own jurisdiction and to the
rights of our own Territory and peo-'
pie.
From whatever point it is view
ed, the statute in question has no APP
plication to the present case and
accordingly the judgment of the Dis
trict Magistrate should be affirmed"