Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/166/110/case.php
Timestamp: 2019-10-15 16:48:09
Document Index: 493878620

Matched Legal Cases: ['sui generis', '§ 4214', '§ 67', '§ 36', '§ 4', '§ 29']

THE CONQUEROR, 166 U. S. 110 (1897) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
US Supreme Court Decisions On-Line> Volume 166 > THE CONQUEROR, 166 U. S. 110 (1897)
Subscribe to Cases that cite 166 U. S. 110
The best evidence of damage suffered by detention is the sum for which vessels of the same size and class can be chartered in the market, but chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The material facts of the case are as follows: in May, 1891, Vanderbilt, who is a native-born American citizen, purchased of one Bailey, or Kingston-upon-Hull, England, the yacht Conqueror, a foreign-built vessel, for the sum of £15,500, or about $75,000. The bill of sale was certified by the United States consul at Liverpool, and the yacht was delivered to Vanderbilt at Hull. The vessel was designed for pleasure only, and has never been put to any other use. After a cruise to Norway, Mr. Vanderbilt returned with her to England, and in June was elected a member of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club of Liverpool, thereby, it seems, obtaining the right to fly the blue ensign of her majesty's fleet. He never did, however, fly a British flag, but always carried the ensign of the New York Yacht Club, and her enrollment in the Liverpool Yacht Club seems to have been with the intent of claiming a special privilege of exemption from tonnage tax, under Rev.St. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Answers having been filed by Mr. Fassett, as late collector and personally, and by Mr. Hendricks, as collector, praying for the dismissal of the libel and for a decree of restitution of the yacht to the collector, the cause came on for a hearing in chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The fact that the mandate of the circuit court of appeals to the district court, affirming the decree of that court, had gone down is immaterial. The transcript of the record is still in the court of appeals, and, if a writ of certiorari can be issued at all after a final disposition of the case in that court, it could not be defeated by the issue of a mandate to the court below. That certiorari can issue, and indeed is ordinarily only issued, after a final decree in the court of appeals was settled by this Court in American Construction Co. v. Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railway, 148 U. S. 372, 148 U. S. 384, although it may be issued before if this chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
2. Was the Conqueror dutiable under the Tariff Act of October 1, 1890, 26 Stat. 567? This act requires duties to be levied upon all "articles" imported from foreign countries and mentioned in schedules therein contained, none of which schedules mention ships or vessels eo nomine. An abstract furnished us of the corresponding clauses in all the principal tariff acts from 1789 to the present date shows that duties are laid either upon "articles," as in the present act, or upon "goods, wares and merchandise" -- words which have a similar meaning. Indeed, the words "articles" and "goods, wares and merchandise" seem to be used indiscriminately, and without any apparent purpose of distinguishing between them. While a vessel is an article of personal property, and may be chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Not only is there no mention of vessels eo nomine in the tariff acts, but there is no general description under which they chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
While there has been no direct adjudication upon the question of the taxability of foreign vessels under the tariff laws, it was held in United States v. A Chain Cable, 2 Sumn. 362, that a chain cable was not taxable which was purchased at Liverpool by the master of the ship Marathon to supply the place of a hempen cable which had become unseaworthy before the arrival of the ship at Liverpool if the cable were purchased bona fide with the intention of using it for that ship, and not to sell as merchandise. It was said by Mr. Justice Story that the words "goods, wares and merchandise" used in the tariff act included only such as were designed for sale, or to be applied to some use or object distinct from their bona fide appropriation to the use of the ship in which they are imported. And in The Gertrude, 2 Ware 181, s.c., 3 Story 68, it was held that the tackle, apparel, and furniture of a foreign vessel wrecked upon our coast and landed and sold separately from the hull, were not goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the United States within the meaning of the revenue laws. The opinion was delivered by Judge Ware, briefly affirmed on appeal to the circuit court by Mr. Justice Story, and the case put upon the ground that the rigging and apparel of the ship are a part of the ship, and therefore not chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We do not undertake to say that the same rule applies to canoes, small boats, launches, and other undocumented vessels, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
But the decisive objection to the taxability of vessels as imports is found in the fact that, from the foundation of the government, vessels have been treated as sui generis, and subject to an entirely different set of laws and regulations from those applied to imported articles. By the very first act passed by Congress in 1789, subsequent to an act for administering oaths to its own members, a duty was laid upon "goods, wares and merchandise" imported into the United States, in which no mention whatever is made of ships or vessels; but by the next act, entitled "An act imposing duties on tonnage," a duty was imposed "on all ships or vessels entered in the United States" at the rate of six cents per ton upon all such as were built within the United States, and belonged to American citizens, of thirty cents per ton upon all such as should thereafter be built within the United States, belonging to subjects of foreign powers, and of fifty cents per ton upon all other ships or vessels, with a proviso that no American ship or vessel employed in the coasting trade or fisheries should pay tonnage more than once in any year. This distinction between "goods, wares and merchandise" and "ships or vessels" has been maintained ever since, although the amount of such duties has been repeatedly and sometimes radically changed. At the time of the arrival of the Conqueror, tonnage duties were imposed under the Act of June 26, 1884, as amended by section eleven of the Act of June 19, 1886, with a proviso that the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It would seem that under this section and in virtue of the collector's certificate to her bill of sale stating that her owner was an American citizen, the Conqueror would not thereafter be subject to the payment of light money. The Miranda, 51 F.5d 3.
A special provision is made for yachts by Rev.Stat. § 4214, as amended by the Act of March 3, 1883, 22 Stat. 566, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is worthy of notice in this connection that this act, which was evidently passed with reference to this case or this class of cases, and for the express purpose of subjecting foreign-built yachts hereafter purchased or chartered by American citizens to tonnage fees, makes no mention whatever of duties. It is scarcely possible that if Congress had chosen to impose duties upon such yachts, or had supposed them subject to duty as imported articles, it would have also discriminated against them by requiring them to pay tonnage fees. In this, the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
This section is claimed by the government to afford the collector complete immunity against any judgment for damages. Its language, broadly construed, might justify this position, although the fact that the certificate is only authorized chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The section then provides for the manner of prosecuting for a forfeiture, how claim shall be made for the property seized, and under what circumstances it shall be delivered to the claimant. The section terminates with a provision for a certificate of probable cause if judgment shall be given for the claimant or claimants. Through this entire section, the word "claimant" is obviously used in its technical sense, to stand for the owner of the property seized for a penalty or forfeiture, under previous sections of the act. Indeed, the act is so clear in this particular that scarcely any room is left for any other construction. This act was repealed by the Act of August 4, 1790. 1 Stat. 145, to provide more effectually for the collection of the duties on goods imported and upon tonnage. The later act is practically a reenactment of the former, with many amendments and enlargements of its scope, and, in § 67, § 36 of the prior act is repeated, with the same provision for a certificate of probable cause. The act of 1790, however, was repealed March 7, 1799, 1 Stat. 627, by a further act "to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage," wherein the whole subject was again reconsidered, and a new act, still further amending and enlarging the prior ones, adopted. Section 89 of this act again repeated the provision for a certificate of probable cause. These acts limited the granting of such certificates to seizures made for fines or forfeitures under the provisions of the particular act. Subsequently, however, other acts were passed authorizing seizures of vessels and goods for other offenses, but in none of these acts was protection given to the officer making the seizure with probable cause. 1 Stat. 289, § 4; 1 Stat. 63, § 29; 1 Stat. 381, c. 50; 2 Stat. 379, c. 29. To extend to the collector the protection of a certificate of probable cause, where forfeitures were incurred under these acts, a short act was passed on February 24, 1807, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The first case in which demurrage was allowed by this Court for the detention of a ship under a libel for tortious seizure was that of The Apollon, 9 Wheat. 362, which was a suit brought by the master of a French ship against the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
in other words, the market price of the hire of the vessel. This ruling has been repeatedly affirmed in this Court, The Potomac, 105 U. S. 630; in England, The Betsey Caines, 2 Haggard 28; The Inflexible, Swabey 200; The Star of India, 1 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In The Cayuga, 2 Ben. 125, a ferryboat injured by a collision was withdrawn for repairs, her place being supplied by a boat taken from another ferry belonging to the libelants, whose place was, in turn, supplied by a spare boat. It was not shown that the injured boat could have been chartered for any sum for the time she was laid up, but proof was given as to the value of her use based upon her receipts while running on the ferry. It was held that a judgment as to her charter value, given by man having experience upon the ferries, founded upon their knowledge of the business, was a proper basis for the allowance of demurrage. This case was affirmed by the circuit court, 7 Blatchford 385, and also, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
There are two cases reported in which demurrage was allowed for the detention of a yacht. In one of these, The Walter W. Pharo, 1 Lowell 437, the total allowance was but $80, and in the other, The Lagonda, 44 F.3d 7, the yacht had been detained eight days while undergoing repairs, and was allowed by the commissioner $48, as interest upon $36,000, the cost of the yacht. Upon exceptions by the libelant, the court held that the testimony seemed to justify the conclusion that the yacht could have been chartered by her owner for a season of three months for the sum of $6,000, that, under such a charter, the vessel would have earned for her owner in eight days the sum of $552, and gave a decree for that sum.
"It has been pointed out, and I think quite fairly, that you cannot recover by way of damages on account of something which you call profit, but of which profit there is no evidence. . . . Then they talk of letting her go to Preston, and that the Preston people would have given £100 a week probably. It is all imagination. . . . The dredger is not kept for the purpose of being let to anyone else. . . . To say that at some indefinite and future time, they could have let her if they had not wanted her is too remote for anybody to act upon in giving them compensation for the loss of the dredger by way of damages. It seems to me that the damages were too shadowy and too remote to be the proper subject matter of damages in the collision."
Perhaps, if this testimony were taken literally, without reading between the lines, considering other facts appearing in the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Without imputing to the witnesses who were sworn in this case upon the subject of damages any design to mislead the court, we are bond to say that their testimony falls far short of establishing such a case of loss of profits as entitles the libelant to recover this large sum for the detention of his yacht. It is not the mere fact that a vessel is detained that entitles the owner to demurrage. These must be a pecuniary loss, or at least a reasonable certainty of pecuniary loss, and not a mere inconvenience arising from an inability to use the vessel for the purposes of pleasure, or, as was said by Doctor Lushington in The Clarence, 3 W.Rob. 286: "There must be actual loss, and reasonable proof of the amount." In other words, there must be a loss of profits in its commercial sense. In all the cases in which we have allowed demurrage, the vessel has been engaged, or was capable of being engaged, in a profitable commerce, and the amount allowed was determined either by the charter value of such vessel or by her actual earnings at about the time of the collision. The Conqueror, however, did not belong to the class of vessels which are engaged in commercial pursuits, or are ordinarily let to hire. There is doubtless a class of pleasure boats that are let for excursions, and become a source of pecuniary profit to their owners, but the Conqueror did not belong to that class. She was purchased by her owner for his personal pleasure, and there is not an atom of testimony tending to show that he chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
5. The other items of damage going to make up the aggregate amount awarded included about $4,500 for the wages and provisions of the crew, and also for wharfage, towage, night watchman, and extra expenses in heating the vessel, all of which are claimed to be unauthorized, in view of the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary