The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-07-27
THE PRACTISE
INDEFENSIBLE
What Judge Dole Says Regard
ina Treatment of Drunken
Seamen.

/ Thomas Joseph Ford was AWARDED
$500 damages against Oceanic Steam
ship Company, in decision on hbe
in personam rendered by Judge Dol
Yesterday. The amount is made up a
follows: Two months wages, 500
seven weeks board, $50; personal eft
fects, $40; damages for arrest and i'm
prisonment, 1925, with costs.
J. j. Dunno was proctor for libelant
the late Geo. D. Gear having been asso
ciated with him at the institution OF
the suit. Kinney, McClanahan Der
| by were proctors for libelee.
The story of the case has been told
before. Briefly, in connection with the
decision, it may be retold. Ford was q
fireman on the libelee's steamer Ven
tura. On June 28, 1906, when that
vessel was in port here on voyage from
San Francisco to Sydney and inter
mediate ports, he was arrested on board
for being drunk and disorderly-as the
court finds was the fact-and taken
ashore and confined in prison for five
days without any charge being prefer
red against him. He finally regained
his liberty through writ of habeas
corpus. In the meantime the Ven
tura continued her voyage, leaving him
behind and carrying away his "dun-
mage" worth fifty dollars as claimed
and without paying him any wages.
The libelee sought to justify the ar
rest on the ground "that the ibelant
was drunk, disorderly and riotOus dur
ing his watch and interfered with
the work of the Ship" and alleged
that the officer arresting ibelant was
distinctly informed of the nature of the
charges against him.
Judge Dole quotes series of authorl-
ties, along with his review of the facts,
and in conclusion says:
'FThis arrest has been found to be
illegal. 1t was a case in which the
only witnesses obtainable against the
plaintiff belonged to the ships com
pany These were carried to sea by
the libelee before there was an oppor-
tunity to try the plaintiff or even to
subpoena such witnesses. The practice
of the ship as intimated by the chief
officer in his testimony, of having men
locked up as drunk and disorderly at
any port, in any part of the world, and
leaving them to their fate, is indefen-
sible in common law countries.
1t is proceeding instituted by a
ayman to imprison another without
trial or judgment for a day or part
IF a day, and as much longer as official !
negligence may allow. In this case
it was that and more, for it included
4 discharge of the ibelant in violation
IF the law, although a record of dis |
charge was entered the next day by the |
)urser. 1 feel that the rule laid down |
by the Texas case applies in this ease
md that the ibelee is liable, not only |
'or the arrest and Imprisonment but |
or the negligent extension of the i'm
risonment as WE'LL
The law of the case is covered as
ollows in the syllabus of decision:
can arrest of a sailor on board of
lis ship lying in the port of Honolulu
" an officer without a warrant, in
Consequence of the request of the chief
'ficer, is illegal under the Hawaiian
aw and common law.
hief officer told the policeman that
there is a disturbance aboard and
ointed out libelant as the man making
t, does not make the arrest legal,
1here the policeman neither saw nor
card of the circumstances of the dis
lrbance; but if he had been told of
lie circumstances of the disturbance,
hitch he had not seen, and from such
arration had found reasonable cause
, suspect the guilt of libelant and had
rrested him because of such suspicion,
lie arrest would be legal.
'The right to arrest without a war
ant is an exception to the general rule
nd the conditions under which it is
llowed must exist, and the methods
nder which it is carried out must be
trictly followed, to make it legal.
1.-The first officer was in charge of
ne ship = facto, the master did not
ppear in connection with the matters
,stifed to, nor was there any intima
ion that he was on board. Held,
nat the first officer rightfully repre-
,nted the owner.
"The arrest being illegal, and the
Zip going to sea Immediately after
18th the possible witnesses in the case,
aving ibelant in Imprisonment, the
belize is liable for the extension of the Z
IMPRISONMENT, which may have been
ne to the negligence of the police {
-s.%-s--
The simmering burner saves cost of t
lei and oriveS satisfactory Tac4,T+s Cot |