Nippert v. The J. B. Williams

42 F. 533, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 2202
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Kentucky
DecidedApril 5, 1890
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 42 F. 533 (Nippert v. The J. B. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nippert v. The J. B. Williams, 42 F. 533, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 2202 (circtdky 1890).

Opinion

Jackson, J.

The question presented by the appeal and cross-appeal in this case relates to the proper distribution or disposition to be made of the surplus proceeds in the registry of the court arising from the sale of the steamer or tow-boat J. B. Williams. The contest over the fund is between the intervening claimant, I. D. Risher, as mortgagee of the boat, and il. Mppert & Co., who,on February 16, 1889, libeled the J. B. Williams for alleged advances made to her master in December, 1888, [534]*534and February, 1889, to enable him to pay off the crew and bands of the vessel, and supply bills furnished her by others. Tire steamer was sold during the progress of the proceedings, and the proceeds thereof were deposited in the registry of the court. Intervening libelants, asserting maritime liens against the boat, and as to whose claims there was no-dispute, have all been paid out of said proceeds of sale, and there remains in the registry a considerable surplus, as to which libelants, Nip-pert & Co., claim priority of lien for their alleged advances to the steamer, or to the master thereof on the credit of the boat; while Risher, as-mortgagee of the steamer, controverts the validity of said libelants’ lien, and claims said fund as properly belonging to himself. The district court rejected a portion of libelants’ claim and allowed the balance. From this decree both sides have appealed. The material facts of the case on which the questions of law arise, and the rights of the respective claimants depend, are the following, viz.:

The steamer J. B. Williams was owned by the Grand Lake Coal Company, a private firm or copartnership, composed of Joseph B. Williams, James Williams, John Williams, and Thomas Patterson, residents of Pittsburgh, Pa., which was the firm’s place of business, and the home port of said steamer, and where she was registered or enrolled. . John Williams, one of the partners, was the captain and master of the vessel, and Thomas Patterson, another partner, was one of his pilots. The Grand Lake Coal Company was engaged in the coal trade^ between Pittsburgh and points south on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, by means of barges which were transported by its tow-boats, of which the steamer J. B. Williams was the largest. The J. B. Williams, being the largest tow-boat on- the river, at the opening of navigation in the fail would come down from Pittsburgh to Louisville, Ky., with a tow of barges loaded with coal. After carrying its tow to destination, the steamer would return to Louisville, and lie up there, or at the landing on the Indiana side of the river, and await the coming down of another tow of coal-barges from Pittsburgh, which upon arrival it would take charge of and transport south to destination, generally New Orleans, and then return to Louisville, where its crew would be paid off, and the boat would be tied up until other barges arrived to be carried south. So that, after coming down from Pittsburgh in the fall, said steamer rarely, if ever, returned to that port during the season of navigation, but made Louisville, or the Indiana port opposite, her starting and returning port during the period. Upon her return from trips south, her crew and hands would be paid off. Her services being chiefly rendered for her owners, she earned but little money with which to meet her expenses, which were considerable for each trip south and back.

The libelants, M. Nippert & Co., were and are ship-chandlers and dealers in boat stores at Louisville, and were in the habit of furnishing said steamer with supplies upon the order or request of her master. Their bills for such supplies were generally paid at the company’s office in Pittsburgh, Libelants knew that John Williams, the master of the steamer, and Thomas Patterson, the pilot, were each members of said [535]*535firm styled tbe “Grand Lake Coal Company.” In addition to furnishing said steamer with boat-store supplies, libelants were in the habit, after each return trip of the steamer, of indorsing a draft of the master drawn at Louisville upon the Grand Lake Coal Company, at Pittsburgh, for such amount as the master might indicate or desire to meet the accrued expenses of the vessel. Such draft or drafts were made payable to the order of M. Nippert & Co., ánd contained upon their face the statement or direction to “charge to wages and supply account of str. J. JB. Williams.” After indorsement by said M. Nippert & Co., the drafts, usually drawn payable 90 days after date, would be discounted by the Masonic Savings Bank at Louisville, and the proceeds thereof be paid over to the master, and be by him or the clerk of the steamer expended or disbursed. This manner of raising funds for the steamer continued for 13 or 14 years. No question rvas ever made by the drawees of the master’s authority thus to draw upon them, and his drafts, indorsed by Nippert & Co., and discounted by the Masonic Savings Bank of Louisville, were in every instance honored by acceptance upon presentation; and at maturity were taken up by the drawees, the owners of the steamer, except tbe drafts involved in the present controversy. The Masonic Savings Bank, which cashed or discounted such drafts of the master, required an indorser thereon, and such indorsement was made generally, if not in every instance, by libelants.

The steamer having returned from a towing trip to New Orleans, and the master, John Williams, needing funds for the boat, and $2,000 for the Grand Lake Coal Company, went to libelants on December 11,1888, to raise and procure, in the usual way, the sum of $6,500 for said purpose. He drew his draft as captain for that amount, payable 90 days after date, to the order of libelants, on the Grand Lake Coal Company, at Pittsburgh, Pa., the draft expressing on its face that it was for “value received, and charge to wages and supply account of steamer J. B. Williams.” This draft was indorsed in blank by M. Nippert & Co., and Christian Boscbe, the financial member of said firm, went with the master to the Masonic Savings Bank of Louisville to have it discounted. It was discounted by said bank, the discount and exchange charged and deducted from the face of the draft being $135, leaving, as the not proceeds of the draft, the sum of $6,364.95, which was placed to the credit of the indorsers on the books of the bank, and for which M. Nippert & Co. at the same time drew their check, which was payable “to proceeds of draft or bearer.” On this check of $6,364.95, for the proceeds of the draff, the bank paid over to the master of the steamer the sum of $3,864.95, and for the balance issued its two drafts on the Importers’ & Traders’ National Bank of New York, payable to the order of M. Nip-port & Co., — one for the sum of $500, which said Nippert & Co. specially indorsed to the order of James Rafferty, a pilot on the J. B. Williams, to whom that amount was due from the steamer; the other for the sum of $2,000, which said M. Nippert & Co. indorsed to the order of the Grand Lake Coal Company, and which was forwarded to said company, and used by it. This application of the 12,000 bank draft will [536]*536be further noticed and explained later on. The proceeds of his $6,500 draft, received by the master, amounting to $3,864.95, appears to have been used by him or the clerk of the steamer in paying off the boat’s crew, to whom about $2,972.30 was then due, and for supplies. Said draft for $6,500, so discounted by the bank, was accepted by the draw-ees on December 19, 1888. Early in January, 1889, the J. B.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 F. 533, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 2202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nippert-v-the-j-b-williams-circtdky-1890.