Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/303/91/case.php
Timestamp: 2017-12-16 14:53:03
Document Index: 415526375

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 4612', '§ 713', '§ 65', '§ 713', '§ 713', '§ 12', '§ 713']

BLACKTON V. GORDON, 303 U. S. 91 (1938) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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BLACKTON V. GORDON, 303 U. S. 91 (1938)
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The respondent recovered judgment against one Findlay, the captain of the tug Waverly, a registered vessel of the United States operating in New York Harbor. Under a state statute, Findlay's wages due from his employer, the Erie Railroad Company, were attached by the service of an order on the petitioner, superintendent of the marine department of the railroad company. It is not disputed that, if Findlay's wages were subject to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
garnishment the order, and its service upon the petitioner, were regular and lawful. The petitioner asserted that the federal statute exempted Findlay's wages from execution, and refused to honor the order. Thereupon action was instituted by respondent against petitioner pursuant to local statute which, in such a case, renders the recusant officer liable for the amount of the judgment. On the trial, petitioner's motions for a nonsuit and for a directed verdict were denied, and judgment went for the respondent. The petitioner successively appealed to the Supreme Court and the Court of Errors and Appeals. The judgment was affirmed. [Footnote 2] Because of the importance of the question we granted the writ of certiorari.
Section 65 of the Act of 1872 became § 4612 of the Revised Statutes and, with immaterial amendments, now is § 713 of title 46 of the United States Code. Various other provisions of the Act of 1872 embodied in the Revised Statutes, either in their original form or as amended by the Act of March 4, 1915, and by the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, [Footnote 6] now appear, with provisions of other statutes, as sections of Title 46 of the Code, 46 U.S.C. In compiling it the original language of § 65 of the Act of 1872, "To avoid doubt in the construction of this act," was, in § 713 of Title 46, changed to read: "In the construction of this chapter." The change in phraseology has given rise to the impression that the definitions found in § 713 apply indifferently to the various statutes affecting merchant shipping. [Footnote 7] To avoid confusion in determining the applicability of the definitions contained in that section, it is necessary to trace to their origin the substantive sections to which it may be deemed to refer, and to construe them in the light of the evident intent of Congress in the use chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
of the word "seaman" in the original act. Since the pertinent provision of § 12 of the Act of 1915 here under consideration and the definitions of § 713 of title 46 of the Code were commonly derived from the Act of 1872 and have not been materially changed, they must be read in collocation, and, when this is done, the intent of Congress to exclude masters from the exemption accorded seamen is plain. [Footnote 8]