Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/90413/wilder-vs-inter-island-steam-navigation-co-ltd
Timestamp: 2017-01-19 23:43:03
Document Index: 358960550

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 4536', '§ 4536', '§ 4536', '§ 233', '§ 4536', '§ 4536', '§ 4536', '§ 4536', '§ 3079']

Wilder Vs Inter Island Steam Navigation Co Ltd - Citation 90413 - Court Judgment | LegalCrystal
Save as PDF Add a Tag Add a Note Semantics Visualize Wilder Vs. Inter-island Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. - Court Judgment	LegalCrystal Citationlegalcrystal.com/90413CourtUS Supreme CourtDecided OnNov-30-1908Case Number211 U.S. 239AppellantWilderRespondentinter-island Steam Navigation Co., Ltd.Excerpt:.....241
the territory of hawaii, and is brought here for the purpose of settling the liability of seamen's wages to seizure after judgment by attachment or proceedings in aid of execution. the inter-island steam navigation company, defendant in error, was directed by order and judgment of the district magistrate of honolulu to pay into court, on account of a judgment rendered in favor of plaintiff in error against one a. tullet, the sum of $65. tullet is a seaman, being master of the steamer
plying between ports within the territory. the sum of $65 was due to tullet from the inter-island steam navigation company for wages for the months of january and february, 1906. the judgment was recovered against tullet on september 5, 1905, for the sum of $120.38 and costs. an..... Judgment:
Wilder v. Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. - 211 U.S. 239 (1908)
and not decided, whether the Act of June 9, 1874, c. 259, 18 Stat. 64, repealed § 4536, Rev.Stat., so far as vessels engaged in the coastwise trade are concerned.
This case is one of a number of similar cases arising within
plying between ports within the territory. The sum of $65 was due to Tullet from the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company for wages for the months of January and February, 1906. The judgment was recovered against Tullet on September 5, 1905, for the sum of $120.38 and costs. An execution was issued thereon and returned unsatisfied. Upon affidavit's being filed, an order was issued attaching the sum of $65, due in manner aforesaid from the navigation company to Tullet. The navigation company filed an answer setting forth that Tullet was an American seaman in the employ of the company, and that the money attached was due to Tullet as wages, and, under § 4536 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, the same were not subject to arrestment nor attachment, and that the territorial court had no jurisdiction in the premises. The lower court held that the wages could be attached in this manner. This judgment was reversed in the Supreme Court of Hawaii.
"SEC. 2118.
Attachment of debts, order.
-- It shall be lawful for a judge of any court upon the
application of such judgment creditor, either before or after such oral examination, and upon affidavit by the judgment creditor or his attorney stating that judgment has been recovered, and that it is still unsatisfied, and to what amount, and that any other person is indebted to the judgment debtor and is within the jurisdiction, to order that all debts owing or accruing from such third person
17 Stat. 262, 276, c. 322. It afterwards became, in the revision of 1874, § 4536 of the Revised Statutes. This section appears to have been copied from § 233 of 17 and 18 Victoria, c. 104, which act provides:
We have been unable to discover any English case construing this statute, and none has been called to our attention. In Maclachlan on Merchant Shipping, 4th ed., 231, that author states the effect of the statute to be to except seaman's wages from liability to attachment by a judgment creditor, as payment of such wages is valid, notwithstanding any previous sale or assignment thereof, or any attachment, encumbrance, or arrestment thereon. In this country, the cases, state and federal, in which this statute has been under consideration are not in accord. In
Telles v. Lynde,
47 F. 912, and
93 F. 834, the District Court in the Ninth Circuit reached the conclusion that the statute did not prevent the seizure of seamen's wages after judgment upon proceedings in aid of execution, although the seamen's wages were not liable to attachment in advance of judgment.
The question was very fully considered by Judge Benedict in the case of
McCarty v. Steam Propeller City of New Bedford,
4 F. 818. In that case, Judge Benedict held the view that the statute of Victoria 17 and 18, above cited, was but declaratory of the law of England as it theretofore existed, and that, in view of the remedies given in the United States courts in admiralty, and the provisions of the federal statutes enacted in reference to the recovery and protection of the wages of seamen, there was no jurisdiction in the state courts to garnishee the wages of seamen at the instance of a creditor.
With Judge Benedict's opinion before him, Mr. Justice Gray, then of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, in the case of
Eddy v. O'Hara,
132 Mass. 56, said that the court, although recognizing the elaborate and forcible argument of Judge Benedict, had not been able to satisfy itself that such an exemption from attachment had even been recognized, except as created or limited by express statutes or ordinances. The learned justice conceded that a determination of that question was not necessary to the decision then made, because the court held that the trustee in foreign attachment, having been compelled by process from the admiralty court to pay the amount of wages, could not be charged again for the same sum. In the subsequent case of
White v. Dunn,
134 Mass. 271, the question was directly presented, and the former opinion of Mr. Justice Gray, in 132 Mass. 56, was approved, and it was held that the wages of seamen engaged in the coastwise trade (the Act of 1874, 18 Stat. 64, c. 260, being construed to exempt coastwise-trading vessels from the provisions of the act of 1872, which included what is now § 4536) are subject to attachment by the trustee process. The court expressed regret at its inability to agree with the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, evidently referring to Judge Benedict's opinion above cited, and expressed the opinion that no practical injustice would grow out of the conflict, as the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts had recently held, in
Eddy v. O'Hara, supra,
that, where the wages of seamen had been obliged to be paid by a decree in admiralty, a party could not again be charged under attachment proceedings, and the court expressed the opinion that, as the wages were paid upon the judgment upon which trustee process had issued a court of admiralty of the United States would not compel the owners to pay a second time.
20 F. 57, Judge Brown, sitting in admiralty in the Southern District of New York, adhered to the views expressed by Judge Benedict
McCarty v. The City of New Bedford, supra,
notwithstanding the decision in
but held that a compulsory payment under garnishee process in Massachusetts, under principles of comity, should be recognized in the admiralty court. In
Ross v. Bourne,
14 F. 858, Judge Nelson, sitting in the United States District Court in Massachusetts, held that a suit at law against a seaman, wherein his wages had been attached by a trustee process, but not yet paid, would not bar the seaman's recovery of the whole wages by a suit in admiralty. Upon appeal to the circuit court of the same case (17 F. 703), Judge Lowell said that "he did not dissent" from the learned opinion of Mr. Justice Gray, in
but held that such an attachment proceeding should be respected out of comity only, and that comity did not require actions in favor of seamen in admiralty to be hung up to wait the dilatory proceedings of an attachment suit at common law.
From this conflict of views upon the subject, we turn to the consideration of the section (4536) itself. We may premise that no contention was made in the Supreme Court of Hawaii, or in the assignments of error or argument in this Court, that § 4536 was inapplicable because the steamship company was engaged wholly in the coastwise trade. This removes any question on that subject from the case and renders it unnecessary to decide whether the Act of 1874, 18 Stat. 64, c. 260, had the effect to repeal § 4536 so far as vessels thus engaged are concerned. In the first clause of § 4536, it is provided that no wages due or accruing to any seaman shall be subject to attachment or arrestment from any court, and it is the contention of the plaintiff in error that the words "attachment" or "arrestment" only forbid such proceedings before judgment, but do not protect such wages from proceedings in attachment after judgment. Undoubtedly the word "attachment," as ordinarily understood in American law, has reference to a writ the object of which is to hold property to abide the order of the court for payment of a judgment in the event
the debt shall be established. And as Mr. Justice Alvey says, in delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court of Maryland,
Thomson v. Baltimore & Susquehanna Steam Co.,
33 Md. 318:
Neither of the words used in the statute, "attachment" or "arrestment," considered literally, has reference to executions or proceedings in aid of execution to subject property to the payment of judgments, but refers, as we have seen, to the process of holding property to abide the judgment. But we are of opinion that this statute is not to be too narrowly construed, but rather to be liberally interpreted with a view to effecting the protection intended to be extended to a class of persons whose improvidence and prodigality have led to legislative provisions in their favor, and which has made them,
as Mr. Justice Story declared, "the wards of the admiralty."
2 Mason 541.
We think, too, that the section is to be construed in the light of and in connection with the other provisions of the title of which it is a part. And we may notice that, after providing against attachment or arrestment of wages, this very section goes on to enact that payment of wages to seamen shall be valid notwithstanding any previous sale or assignment, or any attachment, encumbrance, or arrestment thereon, and that no assignment or sale of wages made prior to the accruing thereof shall bind the party making the same except such advance securities as are authorized by this statute. When we look to the provisions of the title, we see that the field of "advanced securities" is very narrow indeed. 3 United States Compiled Statutes, §§ 3079
It is made unlawful to pay any seaman his wages in advance, and an allotment of his wages is permitted only to grandparents, parents, wives, or children, or, under regulations of the Commissioner of Navigation, made with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, not to exceed one month's wages to a creditor in liquidation of a just debt for board or clothing. And it is provided that no allotment note shall be valid unless signed and approved by the shipping commissioner. This statute has been held a valid enactment (
) as to advancements.
Furthermore, there are other sections in the title which
"Ordinarily," says Judge Nelson, in
F. 862,