Case Name: UNITED STATES v. The JULIA LAWRENCE
Court: United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1871
Citations: 26 F. Cas. 670
Docket Number: 
Parties: UNITED STATES v. The JULIA LAWRENCE.
Judges: (BETTS, District Judge):
Reporter: Federal Cases
Volume: 26
Pages: 670–670

Head Matter:
Case No. 16,502.
UNITED STATES v. The JULIA LAWRENCE.
[6 Am. Law Rev. 383.]
District Court, S. D. New York.
1871.
Admiralty Jurisdiction' — Territorial Extent or Judicial Districts.
[1. A seizure made on waters of New York Bay below low-water mark, on the Jersey shore, is within the jurisdiction of the district court of the Southern district of New York.] ,
[Cited in Thp L. W. Eaton, Case No. 8,612; Hall v. Devoe Manuf’g Co., 14 Fed. 185.]
L2. The actual boundary line of the Southern district of New York is coterminous with that of the state at the time of the creation of the district. The subsequent agreement entered into between New York and New Jersey respecting their boundary line in no way impairs or con-Hicts with any jurisdiction or power previously possessed by the United States; for congress, in assenting to that agreement, expressly provided that nothing therein should be construed to affect any right of jurisdiction of the United States in and over the islands or waters form- ¡ mg the subject of the agreement.] i
This ease came up on a question of the jurisdiction of the court. The action was brought to forfeit the ship for a violation of the revenue laws and alleged a seizure of the ship by the collector within this district. It was admitted that the ship, when seized, was attached to a piei on the New Jersey side of the North river, and upon waters of the hay.

Opinion:
HELD
BY THE COURT
(BETTS, District Judge):
That the locus in quo of the seizure will be within the cognizance of this court, irrespective of the territorial boundaries of the state, if the surface of the waters on which she was seized was within the jurisdiction of the Southern district of New York. That the actual boundary line of this district was coterminous with that of the state at the time the district was erected and defined. That the agreement entered into between New York and New Jersey respecting their boundary line in no way impairs or conflicts with any jurisdiction or power previously possessed by the United States, or framed in approval or confirmation of it. On the contrary7, congress expresslv provided, in assenting- to that agreement, "that nothing therein contained shall be construed to impair, or in any way affect any right of jurisdiction of the United States in and over the islands or waters'' which form the subject of said agreement. That the United States therefore retain the same jurisdiction over the waters of the bay as they originally possessed on the organization of their courts. That the seizure being made on waters of the bay and below low-water mark on the Jersey shore, the court nas full jurisdiction over the case.
Exceptions to the jurisdiction therefore overruled.