Kusenberg v. Browne

42 Pa. 173, 1862 Pa. LEXIS 74
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 22, 1862
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 42 Pa. 173 (Kusenberg v. Browne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kusenberg v. Browne, 42 Pa. 173, 1862 Pa. LEXIS 74 (Pa. 1862).

Opinion

[179]*179The opinion of the court was delivered, March 22d 1862, by

Read, J.

The charter of Charles the Second empowered the proprietary to erect and constitute, within the province, such and so many sea ports, harbours, creeks, havens, keys, and other places for discharge and unlading of goods and merchandises out of the ships, boats, and other vessels, and landing them into such and so many places, and all ships, boats, and other vessels which shall come into or out of the said province, shall be laden or unladen only at such ports as shall be so erected by the proprietary, who shall admit and receive in and about all such havens, ports, creeks, and keys, the king’s officers of the customs and their deputies. By his charter of 1701, William Penn constituted the city of Philadelphia to be a port or harbour for discharging and unlading of goods and merchandises out of ships, boats, and other vessels, and for lading and shipping them.' in or upon such and so many places, keys, and wharves there as by the mayor, aldermen, and common council of the said city shall, from time to time, be thought most expedient for the accommodation and service of the officers of the customs in the management of the king’s affairs, and preservation of his duties, as Avell as for conveniency of trade. The said port or harbour to be called the port of Philadelphia, which shall extend into all such creeks, rivers, and places in the province, and shall have so many wharves, keys, landing-places, and belonging thereto for landing and shipping of goods as the said mayor, aldermen, and common council, with the approbation of the chief officers of the customs, shall, from time to time, think fit to appoint.

At the time of the grant of the charter by Charles the Second, the port of London, by the common law and the statutes 1 Eliz. c. 11, and 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 11, had legal quays and sufferance wharves, which were authorized to receive goods liable to duty, besides private wharves, on each side of the Thames, for home produce, such as Avood, coals, and beer, which might be landed or shipped in any place. To each species of Avharf there are attached certain shore duties, as they are called by Lord Hale, such as “ Wharfage or Keyage, a toll or duty for the pitching or lodging of goods upon a wharf,” and Cunningham calls it money-paid for landing goods at a Avharf or quay, or taking goods into a boat and from thence. The OAvner of a wharf or quay is entitled, at common laAv, to remuneration for the use of them, and in one of the cases in the books it is said that the claim for wharfage is like that of stallage, the party bringing his goods to the Avharf or quay having an easement, and the owner of the wharf or quay a damage: Gunning on Tolls 123.

The wharves in the port of Philadelphia were of two kinds— public, such as the ends of the streets, which Avere for the use and service of the city — private, such as were erected by the [180]*180owners of the soil. In both eases, as the right of the riparian owner extends only to low-water mark, the privilege of erecting wharves to project into the stream was therefore one which might be granted or withheld, at the pleasure of the proprietary or his successor, the state. This control was the more necessary as the proprietary, with the assent of the freemen of the province, might assess such reasonable customs and subsidies on merchandise and wares, there to be laded and unladed, as upon just cause, and in a due proportion, they might deem expedient and proper. As the proprietary was also the owner of the three lower counties on the Delaware, commonly called the territories, his territorial right extended over the bay and river, beyond the limits of the province, and powers were exercised over them by the provincial legislature, which arose from the fact that the same person was the proprietor of both, and his principal habitation was in Pennsylvania, where his great seaport was situated.

"We find amongst the early colonial laws, acts imposing duties upon imports and exports, as also tonnage duties on ships and vessels; and in 1763 the Provincial Assembly, to encourage commerce, and to render the entrance into these ports more secure, passed an act for erecting a light-house at the mouth of the bay of Delaware, at or near Cape Henlopen, and for placing and fixing buoys in the said bay and river Delaware, and three years afterwards, an act for appointing wardens for the port of Philadelphia, and for the regulating pilots plying in the river and bay, and the price of pilotage to and from the said port. After various other acts on the same subject, the Provincial Assembly, on the 26th February 1773, 1 Hall & Sellers 464, passed a consolidated act, appointing wardens for the port of Philadelphia, the preamble of which designates its object. It recites that the regulating of pilots plying in the river and bay of Delaware, the placing buoys therein, and the erecting a light-house at Cape Henlopen having been found, on experience, to have greatly contributed to the ease and security of the navigation of the said river and bay, and the trade of the province; and that it is convenient that the said pilots, light-house, buoys, and piers thereinafter mentioned should be put under one general direction.

This act appointed seven wardens by name, who were to choose one of their number president, and to appoint a clerk. They were to examine all persons offering to serve as pilots, and to grant three kinds of certificates. The rates of pilotage were fixed, subject to adjustment by the wardens who were to make rules and regulations concerning the pilots. Persons taking up any anchor and stock, or any anchor without a stock, or any cable in the river or bay, were to deliver them to the president or one of the wardens, under a penalty of 100?. Any person destroying any of the buoys or beacons in the bay or river, or [181]*181burning or destroying the light-house on Cape Ilenlopen, upon conviction, was to forfeit 10001., to be imprisoned three years, and be whipped once in every year, during such imprisonment, at the common whipping-post, with any number of lashes not exceeding thirty-nine.

The act then provides for the erection on the river of piers at convenient distances, in which vessels may take shelter during the inclemency of the winter, and the wardens are to make the necessary contracts for building the same on land purchased by them. A tonnage duty was imposed upon vessels coming into or going out of the province, and Thomas Combe was appointed collector. The wardens were to appoint the keeper of the lighthouse, and to maintain the buoys, piers, and light-house in good order, and to lay their accounts yearly before the committee of accounts of the Assembly for the time being, and the duration of the act was limited to fifteen years.

The charter of the city having been put an end to by the Revolution, and the corporation itself being dissolved, and all its powers and jurisdiction having entirely ceased, there was no local body having an immediate charge of the wharves and harbour of Philadelphia. To remedy this defect, the General As-, sembly of the Commonwealth, on the 1st April 1784, passed an act for the further regulation of the port of Philadelphia, and enlarging the powers of the wardens thereof.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 Pa. 173, 1862 Pa. LEXIS 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kusenberg-v-browne-pa-1862.