The S. L. Davis

The S. L. Davis, 22 F. Cas. 318 (1868)

Court: U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York · Historical Federal Courts
Decided: May 29, 1868
Judges: Nelson
Citations: 22 F. Cas. 3186 Blatchf. 1382 Nat. Bank. Reg. 31868 U.S. App. LEXIS 1404

Cited by 0

Headnotes

Case No. 12,939. Salvage — Cargo—Property of United States. A cargo of cotton belonging to the United States, on transportation, on freight, under bills of lading, on board of a vessel, from Savannah, Georgia, to New York, is liable to •contribute, in a suit in rem against vessel and ■cargo, toward compensation for salvage services rendered to the vessel and cargo. [Cited in The Siren, 7 Wall. (74 U. S.) 161.] [On appeal to the supreme court the above decree was affirmed. 10 Wall. (77 U. S.) 15.]

Summary

[Appeal from the district court of the United States for the Southern district of New York.] This was a libel in rem, filed in the district •court, against the schooner S. L. Davis and a •cargo of cotton, on transportation by her from Savannah, Georgia, to the city of New York, to recover for salvage services. The cotton belonged to the United States, and was shipped by a treasury agent of the United States, under bills of lading, which provided that he should pay freight at the rate of fifteen cents per ton per day, registered tonnage, dangers of the seas excepted. The cotton was attached; in this suit, before its delivery to, or acceptance Dy, the agent of the United States at New York. The district court dismissed the libel as to the cotton, holding that it was not hable to contribute [case unreported], and, from such dismissal, the libellant appealed to this court.

Syllabus and headnotes are prepared by the reporter or publisher, not the court, and are not part of the opinion.

Opinion of the Court — Nelson

Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.

NELSON, Circuit Justice.

The only question in this case is, whether the cotton is liable to contribute. The salvage service is not in dispute, and was exceedingly meritorious, and saved the vessel and cargo, the former valued at $8,000, and the latter at $150,000. The court below allowed $19,500 for salvage, which I think not unreasonable, regarding the condition and imminent peril of the vessel,' and the value of the cargo on board.

The mere fact of the ownership of the cotton by the government, in the act of being carried to its port of destination for the purposes of a market, as merchandise, did not, I think, exempt it from the lien in case of salvage service. I shall not enter into an argument in support of this position, as the subject, or rather a kindred one — the liability of property of the government for general average — and the present question incidentally, have been most elaborately examined by Mr. Justice Story, in U. S. v. Wilder [Case No. 16,694], I am inclined, also, to the opinion, that, it is the doctrine of the admiralty in England (The. Marquis of Huntly, 3 Hagg. Adm. 246,) and of the most approved modern elementary writers on the subject in this country (1 Pars. Mar. Law, p. 324, bk. 1, c. 9; 2 Pars. Mar. Law, p. 625, bk. 3, c. 7; Marv. Wreck & Salv. § 122. See, also, The Santissima Trinidad, 7 Wheat. [20 U. S.] 283 .

The decree below dismissing the libel as to the cotton is reversed, and a decree will be entered charging it with contribution, with costs.

How later courts describe this case

No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.

Cited by 0 cases

No case in this database cites this case.

Authorities cited 0

No citations to other opinions in this database were found.

`/`	Focus the search box
`j` `k`	Next / previous result
`Enter`	Open the selected result
`x`	Add / remove the selected result from the download list
`n` `p`	Next / previous search term in a case
`c`	Copy the citation of the current case
`+` `−`	Larger / smaller reading text
`?`	Show this list