Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/147/14/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 08:27:28+00:00

Document:
(1) The District Court in New York dismissed the libel of M. on a hearing on the merits.
(2) If the jurisdiction of that court was in issue before it, the remedy of M. was by a direct appeal to this Court, on that question, under § 5 of the Act of March 3, 1591, c. 517, 26 Stat. 827.
(3) If otherwise, the remedy of M., as against the order dismissing the libel, was by an appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit under § 6 of the same act.
(4) The mandamus is refused.
(6) That court did not lose its jurisdiction by the fact that the D. subsequently went to New York.
(7) In order to sustain the proceeding, it was not necessary that M. or V. should have been personally served with notice thereof within the District of Massachusetts, or that the D. should have been taken and held by the Massachusetts Court.
(5) The filing of the libel by the corporation, with the offer of a stipulation, gave jurisdiction, and no subsequent irregularity in procedure could take it away.
(9) The ex parte appraisement was not void.
(10) The District Court in Massachusetts can order the giving of a new or further stipulation, and, on a failure to comply with such order, can stay the further proceedings of the corporation, deny it all relief, and dismiss its libel.
(11) The provision of Rule 54 in Admiralty, for the giving of a stipulation, instead of making a transfer to a trustee, is valid, and the value involved may be judicially ascertained primarily without a hearing of the persons interested adversely.
On the 24th of July, 1892, between 8 and 9 o'clock A.M., a collision took place between the steam yacht Alva at anchor on Nantucket shoals, in Vineyard Sound, and owned by William K. Vanderbilt, of the City of New York, and the freight steamship H. F. Dimock, running regularly between Boston and the City of New York and belonging to the Metropolitan Steamship Company, a Massachusetts corporation. The collision occurred during a thick fog, and, as a consequence of it, the Alva sank.
Dimock and her freight then pending; that the petitioner claimed the benefit of the limitation of liability provided for in §§ 4283, 4284, chapter 6, title 48, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and that, if the court decided that any damage was occasioned by the negligence of the Dimock or those in charge of her for which the Dimock was liable, the petitioner claimed that its liability as her owner should be limited to the value of the vessel and her freight pending at the time of the collision.
into court, after paying costs and expenses, should be divided pro rata among the several claimants in proportion to the amount of their respective claims, and that in the meantime, and until the final judgment of the court, it would make an order restraining the further prosecution of any suits against the petitioner or the Dimock in respect of any such claims, and (6) for other relief.
On the 25th of August, 1892, the libel and petition was amended by adding an averment that at the time it was filed, the Dimock was, and ever since has been, lying in the port of Boston, and within the admiralty jurisdiction and process of the district court.
On the 16th of August, 1892, the District Court for Massachusetts issued a warrant to the marshal of the district, directing him to cause the Dimock and her pending freight to be appraised on oath by three appraisers named in the warrant, to be duly sworn. The appraisers made oath before the clerk of the court that they would appraise the vessel and her pending freight according to their best skill and judgment. On the 17th of August, 1892, the three appraisers reported to the court that, after a strict examination and careful inquiry, they estimated and appraised the Dimock at $80,000, and her freight pending at the time of the collision at $2,395.33.
persons claiming damages in the proceedings; that the petitioner should abide by all orders and decrees, interlocutory or final, of the court, and should pay the amount of its final decree, and all sums that the petitioner should be ordered to pay by such final decree, whether in the district court or any appellate court, and that unless it should do so, the signers consented that execution should issue against them, their heirs, executors, and administrators, jointly and severally, and their lands, goods, and chattels, wherever found, to the value of the sum above mentioned, without further notice or delay.
On the same day, the district court issued a monition to the marshal commanding him to give notice to Vanderbilt and to all persons concerned of the filing of the libel or petition and of its substance; to cite Vanderbilt and all persons claiming damages for any loss occasioned by said collision to appear before the court at Boston on or before November 25, 1892, and make due proof of their respective claims in the premises; to serve a copy of the monition on Vanderbilt, if he should be found within that district; to give further notice by advertising the same in a specified newspaper published at Boston at least sixty days before such return day, and to post a copy of the notice at the courthouse in Boston. The marshal made return on September 2, 1892, that he had advertised the monition three times -- on August 19 and 26 and September 2 -- in the designated newspaper, had posted a copy of it in the courthouse at Boston on August 19th, and on the same day had given a further notice to Vanderbilt by mailing to him an attested copy of the monition by registered letter to his house at Newport.
restraining order to Root & Clarke, attorneys for Vanderbilt at New York.
voyage she was then making, exceeded $200,000, and her freight then pending exceeded $2,300; that the amount to be apportioned among the several persons who so suffered loss by such collision exceeded $202,300; that the Dimock had not been libeled or arrested in any court to answer for such loss, and her owner had not theretofore been sued in that behalf, and that the Dimock was then within the Southern District of New York, and subject to the control of the court for the purposes of the proceeding.
The prayer of the libel was that the court would proceed to establish the loss suffered in the premises by all persons who might make any claim of liability therefor against the Dimock or her owner, and would proceed in due course to ascertain the value of the Dimock and her freight then pending, and the proportionate amount of compensation for said matters which the libellant was entitled to receive from the owner of the Dimock, and to decree the payment thereof against either the Dimock or her owner, or both, as might be lawful and proper, and for further relief; that process might issue against the Dimock, and she be condemned and sold to pay said damages, and that the steamship company, Vanderbilt, and all persons claiming to have suffered loss by such collision, might be cited in due form to appear and answer, and to prove their claims in that behalf.
Under process duly issued on that libel, the Dimock was attached by the marshal on September 30, 1892, in the Southern District of New York, and on the 1st of October, 1892, in that district, process of monition was duly served by him on the steamship company, and on the same day proctors for Vanderbilt duly entered their appearance for him in the suit.
just. The motion of the steamship company to that effect was heard on the papers mentioned, on additional affidavits on behalf of that company, on a copy of the record of the District Court in Massachusetts, and on affidavits on the part of the libellant, and on the 7th of October, 1892, the district court, held by Judge Brown, made an order directing that the process issued on Morrison's libel be vacated; that the service thereof on the steamship company be set aside; that the Dimock be released and set free from the attachment, and that the libel be dismissed. The order further said: "This order is made upon the grounds and for the reasons stated in the opinion filed this day, to which reference is hereby made as a part hereof."
fell within the domain of practice, to be regulated by that District Court in the absence of any express rule of this Court, as the interests of justice seemed to demand; that, as Rule 54 of this Court did not in terms require any notice to creditors of the original appraisement and stipulation, the district court was not prepared to hold that the "due appraisement" provided for by that rule might not be, in the first instance, an ex parte one, to be supplemented thereafter, if unsatisfactory, by further inquiry on the application of a creditor; that the want of notice did not constitute a jurisdictional defect in the appraisement and stipulation, so as to render void the order for a motion and other subsequent steps in the cause, including the injunction against all other suits, provided for by Rule 54; that the prior proceeding in the District Court in Massachusetts was valid, and the libel of Morrison was improperly filed, and that it should be dismissed.
On the 17th of October, 1892, Morrison presented to this Court a petition for a writ of mandamus directing the District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Judge Brown, notwithstanding the matters contained in the moving affidavits before that court and notwithstanding the proceedings in the District Court of the United States in Massachusetts, to vacate the order of October 7, 1892, and to reinstate Morrison's libel, and proceed thereon according to law. Accompanying the petition are copies of all the papers in the suit of Morrison and of all the papers constituting the record in the suit in the District Court in Massachusetts. Judge Brown has made return to the order to show cause, and the case has been orally argued here by the counsel for both parties, and full briefs have been submitted to this Court.
valid defense to it in the prior proceedings instituted in the District Court for Massachusetts, which court had full jurisdiction of the cause. What it said was that Morrison's libel was improperly filed because it was filed in violation of a valid restraining order, issued on the 17th of August, 1892, by the District Court for Massachusetts.
The District Court in New York having dismissed the libel out of court, on a hearing of the case on the merits, we are now asked to direct it to vacate its order of dismissal, and to reinstate the cause, and to proceed upon the libel. This is, in effect, asking us to direct the district court to decide in a particular way the matter heard before it, which is never the office of a mandamus. Ex Parte Morgan, 114 U. S. 174; Ex Parte Brown, 116 U. S. 401.
Moreover, the present attempt is one to use a mandamus as a writ of error, which cannot be done. Ex Parte Railway Co., 103 U. S. 794, 103 U. S. 796; Ex Parte Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 108 U. S. 566; In re Pennsylvania Co., 137 U. S. 451, 137 U. S. 453.
In addition to this, a mandamus is never granted where the party asking it has another remedy. In re Pennsylvania Co., supra. In the present case, it is claimed by Morrison that the jurisdiction of the District Court in New York was in issue before that court. If so, the remedy of Morrison was by an appeal from the district court directly to this Court, on the question of jurisdiction, under § 5 of the Act of March 3, 1891, c. 517, 26 St. p. 827. If the question of the jurisdiction of the district court was not in issue before that court, then the remedy of Morrison, as against the order of the district court dismissing his libel, was by an appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, under § 6 of the same act.
For the foregoing reasons, the prayer of the petition for a mandamus in No. 8, Original, must be denied.
"according to the usual course and practice of the said district court in such cases, by three persons known to me to be persons of integrity, and of skill and experience in such matters, and such appraisement was duly made and returned."
obligation to return the vessel into that district and without any leave of that court obtained or sought; that the only thing left within the Massachusetts district to be divided among damage claimants, and subject to be disposed of by the decree of the court for that district in the proceeding there pending, was the stipulation so given; that no notice of the appraisement proceedings, or of the stipulation proceedings, or of the injunction proceedings, was required by the court to be given to any damage claimant, and neither Morrison nor any other damage claimant had in fact any notice thereof, or any opportunity to be heard thereon; that neither Morrison nor Vanderbilt nor any damage claimant had been served personally with process in the Massachusetts district, or had entered any appearance in the Massachusetts court; that Vanderbilt had received a copy of the monition and of the injunction order, but not within the District of Massachusetts, and not until after August 17, 1892, and that Morrison had not been served with any paper in the Massachusetts proceedings, either within or without the Massachusetts district.
sued; that Morrison acquired by the collision a right to recover damages to some extent against the company owning the Dimock, personally, in any district court which could obtain personal jurisdiction of that company; that he acquired a right also to recover damages to some extent against the Vessel in any district court which could obtain jurisdiction in rem against her; that his right against the vessel is not a right of action merely, but is a jus in re, and a property interest in her, of which he cannot be deprived without due process of law; that the limited liability act did not take away or affect any such rights ex proprio vigore, as an exercise of the legislative power of the United States, but left such rights to be limited and qualified judicially by the courts; that after the collision and before the company filed its libel in Massachusetts, Morrison, by virtue of that statute, had a right to prosecute an apportionment suit in any district court which could acquire jurisdiction in rem of the Dimock and in personam of her owner and of all known damage claimants, and the further right to have any such court adjudicate upon the questions (1) whether the company and the Dimock were liable to any extent -- that is to say, whether the collision was caused by fault on the part of the Dimock; (2) if so, how much was the value of the company's interest in the Dimock and her freight for the voyage? (3) whether the aggregate losses of all the damage sufferers exceeded that value, and (4) if they did, how, or in what proportions, the amount of that value ought to be divided among the sufferers, and that the only ways in which the Massachusetts proceedings could have affected such statutory right of Morrison were (1) by destroying his personal capacity to sue; (2) by releasing the company and the Dimock from liability to be sued: and (3) by conferring upon the court in Massachusetts exclusive jurisdiction to determine those four questions, which were presented alike by the company's libel and by Morrison's libel.
notice of some kind, and opportunity to be heard, not only as a requisite, but as a prerequisite; that the rights of the damage claimants had never been submitted or subjected in any form to the Massachusetts court; that proceedings in court, of which the persons whose rights purported to be affected thereby had no actual or constructive notice, and in which they had no opportunity to be heard, were ineffective, and were not judicial proceedings; that it could not be said that an opportunity to be heard would necessarily, and as matter of law, have been of no advantage to the damage claimants, for they might have convinced the court (1) that the appraisement ought to have been made on sworn testimony, with an opportunity to both sides to produce and cross-examine witnesses; or (2) that the experts selected were not competent or were not impartial; or (3) that the appraisers' report ought to have been rejected because it did not show the plans on which they proceeded, or as of what time the value of the Dimock was taken, or because the appraisers did not personally examine her; or (4) that the stipulation should have been broad enough to cover not merely what the appraisers estimated to be the value of the company's interest in the Dimock and her freight, but also what the damage claimants asserted the value of such interest to be, so that if, on final hearing, the issue tendered in the company's libel and petition as to such value was determined in favor of the damage claimants, the court would have some means of compelling the company to pay the adjudicated value into court for distribution; or (5) that the sureties on the stipulation were insufficient; or (6) the court might have been convinced that, for the reasons above stated, no injunction ought to issue, or else only on condition that the company bound itself, with sureties, to pay into court the value of its vessel and freight, as finally adjudicated; or that the rights of the parties could be more conveniently and justly determined by permitting the damage claimants to assert their claims in their own way, and allowing the steamship company to set up the apportionment proceedings as a plea, or that no injunction ought to issue until the value of the vessel and freight had been adjudicated, and paid into court, or secured to be paid.
It is further urged that the proceedings in Massachusetts were not, as matter of law, equivalent to a transfer of the Dimock and her freight by the company to a trustee under § 4285 of the Revised Statutes; that they were very far from being an equivalent in fact; that there is nothing in the statute which authorizes the owner of a vessel, at his option, either to transfer his interest in the vessel and freight to a trustee or to pay into court the value thereof as determined by an ex parte appraisement, or which declares that it shall be a sufficient compliance with the statute on the part of the owner if he pays or secures to be paid into court the value so appraised, or which provides that, after such payment, all suits and proceedings against the owner shall cease, and that the act leaves the creation of a substitute in lieu of a transfer to a trustee, to a court which proceeds judicially.
It is further contended that the rights of the damage claimants against the company and the Dimock, arising out of the collision, remained precisely as they were before the company filed its libel and petition in Massachusetts; that those rights were never transferred from the company and the vessel to the fund represented by the stipulation; that said fund cannot be regarded as the fund to be apportioned among the damage claimants, as it had never been adjudicated or judicially established to be such; that if Morrison's right to proceed against the company and the vessel in the Southern District of New York had been taken away or suspended by the proceeding in Massachusetts, it must be for some other reason than (1) that the court in Massachusetts had adjudicated that damage claimants ought to be enjoined from proceeding in any other court; or (2) that such claimants had been incapacitated or rendered personally incompetent to sue; or (3) that the company and the Dimock had been released and discharged from liability to be sued, and that the only other way in which Morrison's right to proceed in New York could have been affected was that the jurisdiction of the court in Massachusetts over the subject matter had somehow become exclusive, so that Morrison could proceed against the company and the vessel only in that forum.
competent to adjudicate the question whether or not the collision was caused by fault on the part of the Dimock, because it did not acquire personal jurisdiction of one or more of the damage claimants or jurisdiction in rem of the Dimock; that the fund represented by the stipulation had not been judicially substituted for the Dimock, and she had not been discharged from liability for the collision; that, as she still remained liable for it, nothing but possession and control of her would authorize any court to pronounce a judgment in rem as to her liability; that the court in Massachusetts had never actually assumed possession and control of her by the officers of the court, by seizure or otherwise, or jurisdiction of her; that whatever jurisdiction that court acquired of her by her having been within the district when the company's libel and petition was filed, was lost, and all the rights of the company arising therefrom were abandoned, by the company's having taken the Dimock before the return day of the monition, out of the district, to the port of New York, without leave of the court or procuring any release or discharge of her, or entering into any obligation to bring her back; that the court in Massachusetts never acquired personal jurisdiction over Morrison or any other damage claimant; that, there having been no voluntary appearance of any damage claimant, service of process within the Massachusetts district was essential, and that no process had been served on Morrison or Vanderbilt within that district.
secure to be paid the amount at which the court might cause the value of the vessel and her freight to be duly appraised; that such offer was insufficient, because it did not mean the amount which the court should adjudicate, after hearing the parties adversely interested, to be such value; that, such offer of the company having been complied with to the expressed satisfaction of the court, no power was left to that court to compel the company to pay anything more than the appraised amount, even if the court should find on the proofs that the value of the Dimock and her freight was greater; that as the vessel had been taken out of the Massachusetts District, there was nothing left within the reach or control of the Massachusetts court except the stipulation for an amount which Morrison and Vanderbilt allege was less than one-half the true amount, and that even if they should appear in the Massachusetts court and establish by proof that the liability of the company was not less than $200,000, that court could do nothing against the will of the company.
We are of opinion that none of the views above stated are sufficient to show that this is a proper case for a writ of prohibition. The only question involved is that of the jurisdiction of the District Court of Massachusetts. Ex Parte Gordon, 104 U. S. 515; Ex Parte Ferry Company, 104 U. S. 519; Ex Parte Slayton, 105 U. S. 451; Smith v. Whitney, 116 U. S. 167; Ex Parte Garnett, 141 U. S. 1; Ex Parte Cooper, 143 U. S. 472, 143 U. S. 495.
Under Rule 57 in admiralty, prescribed by this Court, 130 U.S. 705, the Dimock not having been libeled to answer for the loss resulting from the collision, and no suit therefor having been commenced against her owner, the proceedings were instituted lawfully in the District Court in Massachusetts, that being the district in which the vessel was at the time the proceedings were instituted, and she being at that time subject to the control of that court for the purposes of the case, as provided by Rule 54, 137 U.S. 711, and Rules 55 and 56, 13 Wall. xiii.
(1) The proceeding to limit liability is not an action against the vessel and her freight except when they are surrendered to a trustee, but is an equitable action.
(2) It was not necessary, in order to sustain the proceeding for limiting liability, that Morrison or Vanderbilt should have been personally served with notice thereof within the District of Massachusetts, or that the Dimock should have been taken and held by the court. The decisions of this Court have established the power of Congress to pass the statute, and of the courts of admiralty jurisdiction to enforce it, and its enforcement would be impracticable under the restrictions which Morrison seeks to impose. Norwich Co. v. Wright, 13 Wall. 104; The Benefactor, 103 U. S. 239; Providence & New York Steamship Co. v. Hill Mfg. Co., 109 U. S. 578; The City of Norwich, 118 U. S. 468; The Scotland, 118 U. S. 507; Butler v. Boston & Savannah Steamship Co., 130 U. S. 527.
(3) The filing of the libel and petition of the steamship company, with the offer to give a stipulation, conferred jurisdiction upon the court, and no subsequent irregularity in procedure could take away such jurisdiction.
(4) Although some prior notice of the holding of the appraisement might very well have been served upon Vanderbilt, even if he was out of the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts court, he having been named in the libel and petition as a respondent, yet the appraisement ex parte was not void, because Rule 54 does not require prior notice prior notice of the appraisement to be given to anyone, and only requires a monition to be issued after a stipulation has been given or a transfer has been made to a trustee.
stipulation. The Wanata, 95 U. S. 600, 95 U. S. 611; United States v. Ames, 99 U. S. 35, 99 U. S. 36; The City of Norwich, 118 U. S. 468, 118 U. S. 489. The District Court for Massachusetts has the whole matter within its control, for the steamship company, by its libel and petition, has submitted itself to the jurisdiction of that court, and if it should fail to comply with a future order of that court in respect to giving a new or further stipulation, on a further appraisement, that court could stay its further proceedings, deny it all relief, and dismiss its libel and petition.
Section 4285 of the Revised Statutes provides that it shall be deemed a sufficient compliance on the part of the owner of a vessel with the requirements of the statute relating to his liability for loss if he shall transfer his interest in the vessel and freight for the benefit of the claimants to a trustee, and that, after such transfer, all claims and proceedings against the owner shall cease. Rule 54 of the Rules in Admiralty prescribed by this Court provides that when a libel or petition is filed in the proper district court, as provided by Rule 57, claiming a limitation of liability, and praying proper relief in that behalf, the court, having caused due appraisement to be had, shall make an order for the payment of the amount into court or for the giving of a stipulation, with sureties, to pay the same into court whenever ordered, or, if the owner so elects, make an order, without such appraisement, for the transfer by the owner of his interest in the vessel and freight to a trustee to be appointed by the court, and, upon compliance with such order, issue a monition notifying all persons claiming damages to make proof of their claims, and also make an order restraining the further prosecution of all suits against the owner in respect of any such claims.
required and done is tantamount to such transfer, as, where the value of the owners' interest is pain into court, or secured by stipulation, and placed under its control, for the benefit of the parties interested."
To the same effect, see The City of Norwich, 118 U. S. 468, 118 U. S. 502.
In fact, it is stated in the brief for Morrison that his counsel do not doubt that the operation of the limited liability act cannot be regarded as confined to cases of actual transfer to a trustee, but must be regarded as extending to cases in which what is done is tantamount to such transfer, as when the value of the owner's interest is paid into court or secured by stipulation and placed under its control for the benefit of the parties interested. But what they contend for is that the value of such interest cannot be regarded as paid into court or secured by stipulation until such value has been judicially ascertained after a hearing of the persons interested, and that only such a judicial ascertainment is equivalent to a transfer of the vessel and her freight to a trustee.
As the District Court for Massachusetts has jurisdiction in the premises, we will not prohibit it from proceeding in the exercise of such jurisdiction. A writ of prohibition will be issued only in case of a want of jurisdiction either of the parties or of the subject matter of the proceeding. Ex Parte Fassett, 142 U. S. 479, 142 U. S. 486.
The foregoing views sufficiently dispose of the points urged in behalf of the writ.

References: § 5
 § 6
 V. 
 § 5
 § 6
 § 4285
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.