Mosser v. The City of Pittsburgh

45 F. 699, 1891 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 256
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 26, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 45 F. 699 (Mosser v. The City of Pittsburgh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mosser v. The City of Pittsburgh, 45 F. 699, 1891 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 256 (W.D. Pa. 1891).

Opinion

Reed, J.

This was a libel filed against the City of Pittsburgh, described in the libel as a pleasure barge or boat, by John Mosser, for materials furnished and labor done in and about the fitting and repairing of the said barge or boat, amounting to the sum, after deducting all payments, of $377.45, with interest from July 28, 1890. The amount claimed is not disputed, nor is there any question as to the fact that the materials were furnished and work done as claimed by the libelant. The owners of the boat defend upon the ground that the City of Pittsburgh was not such a vessel as could be proceeded against in rem, that the libelant lias no lien against a boat of her character and description, and that this court has no jurisdiction, therefore, in this proceeding.

It appears without dispute from the testimony that the City of Pittsburgh, if a vessel, was a domestic vessel, owned and having her home port in the city of Pittsburgh, where the libelant furnished the materials and did the work claimed for in this proceeding. She was originally a steam-boat known as the “Katie Stockdale,” engaged in a general freight and passenger business on the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, but some time before these proceedings were commenced her boilers, wheel, engines, and machinery were removed, and the boat was altered and changed into a pleasure barge, still retaining portions of her cabins and upper decks. She has no independent means of propulsion, but when in motion is towed by a steam tow-boat engaged for that purpose. Since her alteration the City of Pittsburgh has been used in the transportation of picnic and excursion parties upon the rivers in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, and her cabins are fitted up and used as restaurants and dancing-halls by those who engage her. She was under the care of a master, who, as agent for her owners, contracted for the repairs and alterations made by the libelant.

[700]*700Two questions arise in this case, — one, whether this is such a vessel as to come within the provisions of the laws of the state of Pennsylvania giving to material-men liens against domestic vessels; and the other, whether it will be recognized as such a vessel in a court of admiralty as that contracts for materials and supplies furnished it will be treated as maritime contracts. The statute of Pennsylvania (Act April 20, 1858, P. L. 363) provides that all ships, steam-boats, or vessels navigating the rivers Alleghany, Monongahela, or Ohio should be liable and subject to a lien in certain cases set forth in the act. It further provides that such a lien should exist for all debts contracted by the owners, agent, or master—

“Of such ships, steam or other boats, or vessels, of whatever kind, character, or description, for or on account of work or labor done or materials furnished by boat-builders, lumbermen, carpenters, * * * in the building, repairing, fitting, furnishing, or equipping such ships, steam or other boats, or vessels, of whatsoever kind, character, or description, as hereinbefore specified and enumerated. ”

A former statute of the same state (Act June 13, 1836, P. L. 616) provided that—

“Ships and vessels of. all kinds, built, repaired, or fitted within the commonwealth shall be subject to a lien for all debts contracted by the'masters or owners thereof, for work done or materials found or provided in the building, repairing, fitting, furnishing, or equipping of the same, in preference to any other debt due from the owners thereof.”

Under the act last referred to the courts of Pennsylvania have held that a canal-boat is included among the vessels upon which a lien is given for work and materials used in their construction or repair, Hipple v. Canal-Boat Fashion, 3 Grant, Cas. 40, and in the case of Parkinson v. Manny, 2 Grant, Cas. 521, the same courts held that a coal-boat was not such a ship or vessel as to be within the meaning of the act of 1836; the court saying that vessels of a permanent and substantial character, such as make repeated voyages, either at sea or upon our rivers and canals, are contemplated by the act, and not such as are merely temporary. That the words “vessels of all kinds” are broad enough to include crafts of every description, great and small. This boat is a vessel, within the meaning of the statutes of Pennsylvania giving the lien, and the libelant is entitled to his lien under those laws.

The remaining question is whether the boat is such a vessel under the maritime law that a court of admiralty will take jurisdiction for the enforcement and collection of the lien. In Ex parte Easton, 95 U. S. 68, where the supreme court held that a claim for wharfage was cognizable in admiralty, the court say: “Nor is the nature of the service or the’ character of the contract changed by the circumstance that the watercraft which derived the benefit in the case before the court was without masts or sails or other motive power of her own.” In the case of Cope v. Dock Co., 119 U. S. 625, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 336, the court held that a claim for salvage services could not be maintained against a dry dock because it was a fixed structure, not used for the purpose of navigation,. [701]*701and therefore not the subject of salvage service, any more than was a wharf or a warehouse when projecting into or upon the water. And in the opinion in that ease Justice Bradley says “It is true that the terms ‘ships’ and ‘vessels’ are used in a very broad sense to include all navigable structures intended for transportation;” and he cites an English case in which it was held that a hopper barge, used to receive mud from a dredging machine, and to carry it out to deep water, having no means of locomotion of its own, but towed by other vessels, was included within the term “ship” in the English Merchant Shipping Act; and Justice Bradley observes: “Perhaps this case goes as far as any case has gone in extending the meaning of the terms ‘ship’ or ‘vessel.’ Still the hopper barge was a navigable structure, used for the purpose of transportation.” In The General Cass. 1 Brown, Adm. 334, where the libel was filed against a scow or lighter, the court sustained the jurisdiction, saying :

“I think the true criterion by which to determine whether any water-craft or vessel is subject to admiralty jurisdiction is the business or employment for which it is intended, or is susceptible of being used, rather than its size, form, or capacity, or means of propulsion; and there is certainly no reason why it is not navigation, all the same, whether a vessel is propelled by a steam-engine placed within her hull, or by the same engine by means of a tow-line. It is in fact one of the revolutions wrought by the use of steam that it has abolished all distinctions as to propelling power-in determining admiralty jurisdiction. ”

In the case of The Alabama, 22 Fed. Rep. 449, the court held that the towage of a steam dredge-boat and her two scows was a maritime service, and Judge Pardee says:

“The question whether or not the dredge-boat and scows should be classed as a ship or ships; * * * so that the question here is practically one of jurisdiction.

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Bluebook (online)
45 F. 699, 1891 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mosser-v-the-city-of-pittsburgh-pawd-1891.