Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/139/331/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 08:39:15+00:00

Document:
In admiralty. The case is stated in the opinion.
This is a libel in admiralty in rem, filed on the 23d of July, 1883, in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York by the Providence Washington Insurance Company, of Providence, Rhode Island, and the Security Insurance Company of New Haven, Connecticut, against the steam canal boat Sydney and the canal boat William Worden.
& Co., for such loss against the Sydney and the Worden.
The libel prayed for process against the two boats; for a citation to all persons claiming any right, title, or interest in the same; for the payment of the claim of the libellants, with interest and costs; for the condemnation and sale of the said vessels to pay the same, and for such other an further relief in the premises as in law and justice the libellants might be entitled to receive.
On the 14th of August, 1883, one Charles E. Wager put in a claim to the two vessels as their owner. On the 15th of August, 1883, the district court made an order, on the consent of the proctors for the claimant, that the Sydney be sold by the marshal. The marshal sold the Sydney for $2,100, and he paid that sum to the clerk of the court, after deducting his costs and disbursements, amounting to $166.84. On the 28th of August, 1883, the proctors for the libellants and the claimant agreed that the value of the Worden be fixed at $1,000, in lien of an appraisement, and that a bond to the marshal be given in that amount, which was accordingly done.
established custom existing at Buffalo, whereby common carriers insured themselves against losses under their liability as such for damage and loss to the cargoes shipped on board of their boats.
The case was tried before Judge Brown, in the district court, who dismissed the libel, with costs, giving an opinion which is reported in 23 F. 88.
The libellants appealed to the circuit court, where the case was heard by Judge Wallace, who made a decree reversing the decree of the district court, awarding to the libellants a recovery against both boats for $6,175.89, and $1,420.30 interest, and $656.28 costs in both courts, being an aggregate of $8,252.47, and decreeing that the two boats be condemned therefor. The decree also recited that the Sydney had been sold and the proceeds of the sale, to-wit, $2,100, had been paid by the marshal into the registry of the court, and that the value of the Worden was fixed by consent at $1,000, for which the usual stipulation for value was duly given, and directed that the proceeds of the sale of the Sydney be paid over to the proctor for the libellants, and that the stipulators for the value of the Worden cause the engagement of their stipulation to be performed. The opinion of Judge Wallace is reported in 27 F. 119. He filed the proper findings of fact and conclusions of law. Wager, the claimant, appealed to this Court.
The first question which arises is as to the jurisdiction of this Court, inasmuch as the proceeds of the sale of the Sydney were only $2,100 and the value of the Worden was only $1,000, the aggregate of these two sums not exceeding $5,000. There was no decree against any person in personam for any amount. The only decree was that the Sydney and the Worden be condemned for the $8,252.47.
judgment, on the ground that the statute limiting the appellate jurisdiction of this Court to cases where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeded the sum or value of $5,000, had reference to the matter directly in dispute in the particular cause in which the judgment sought to be reviewed had been rendered, and did not permit the court, for the purpose of determining its sum or value, to estimate its collateral effect in a subsequent suit between the same or other parties. It was further said that the court could not add to the value of the matter determined any estimate in money by reason of the probative force of the judgment itself in some subsequent proceeding.
facts in the case of The Enterprise, so that whatever was said by this Court in apparent recognition of the propriety of the decision in the case of The Enterprise must be regarded as obiter dictum, and the views set forth in the opinion in the last-mentioned case, so far as they conflict with the actual rulings of this Court in the cases of Elgin v. Marshall and The Jessie Williamson, Jr., must be regarded as not having had the affirmative approval of this Court.
The principle of the case of Elgin v. Marshall, that the sum or value really in dispute between the parties in the case before this Court as shown by the whole record is the test of its appellate jurisdiction, without regard to the collateral effect of the judgment in another suit between the same or other parties, has since been repeatedly affirmed by this Court, and that case cited and approved. Opelika City v. Daniel, 109 U. S. 108; Bruce v. Manchester & Keene Railroad, 117 U. S. 514; Glbson v. Shufeldt, 122 U. S. 27; Vicksburg &c. Railroad v. Smith, 135 U. S. 195.
The case of The Jessie Williamson, Jr., has been cited with approval by this Court in Bowman v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway, 115 U. S. 611, and Gibson v. Shufeldt, 122 U. S. 27.
It is very clear that if the libel in the present case had been dismissed by the circuit court, the libellants could not have appealed. The right of appeal must be reciprocal, and the statute does not give to one party an advantage over the other party under the same circumstances. Hilton v. Dickinson, 108 U. S. 165; The Jessie Williamson, Jr., 108 U. S. 305, 108 U. S. 311.

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