The Henry

11 F. Cas. 1160, 1 Hask. 100
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Maine
DecidedDecember 15, 1867
StatusPublished

This text of 11 F. Cas. 1160 (The Henry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Henry, 11 F. Cas. 1160, 1 Hask. 100 (circtdme 1867).

Opinion

FOX, District Judge.

This is a proceeding against this schooner for an alleged violation of the navigation laws. The count in the libel is for fraudulently and knowingly using a certain certificate of record, to wit; an enrolment to which she was not entitled, inasmuch as the “schooner was then and there owned as to one fourth part by one Geo. E. Myrick, a citizen of the United States, who then usually resided in a foreign country.” This is the only count, and it is founded on, and is in the words of the act of December 31, 1792 [1 Stat. 287], relating to registry of ships and vessels. Jabez My-riek and George' E. Myrick appeared as claimants, and for the purpose of presenting the question, a demurrer is filed by them, and the case submitted on the demurrer and the further agreement of the parties, “that the schooner was formerly the property of one of the claimants, he then being a citizen resident in this state; that she was by him duly enrolled and licensed for fishing, and that subsequently this owner being resident in New Brunswick, conveyed a share of the vessel to the other claimant, a resident citizen of Maine, and that the vessel was enrolled in this manner in Frenchman’s Bay collection district, and a new fishing license taken out, under which document she was sailing at the time of her seizure.

Under these circumstances was the vessel liable to forfeiture? An examination of the act of December 31, 1792, entitled “An act concerning the registering and recording of ships and vessels,” demonstrates that it was designed to be confined entirely to those two classes of vessels. It provides for the registry of ships and vessels owned by citizens, and for record of the same when owned by the subjects of foreign powers. The first nineteen sections are confined to registered vessels entirely, whilst from the 19th to the 25th, it relates wholly to the record of title of ships owned by foreigners. In the one case, a certificate is issued to the citizen,, which in terms recites that the ship or vessel is registered. In the other, a certificate is issued to the alien similar to the former, with the exception that it recites the record of the title. One is spoken of throughout •the act as “a certificate of registry,” and the other as “a certificate of record.”

By the second section of this act, vessels entitled to registry must be wholly owned by a citizen or citizens of the United States; and it is further provided that “no such ship or vessel shall be entitled to be registered, or if registered to the benefits thereof, if owned in whole or in part by any citizen of the United States, who usually resides in a foreign country, during the continuance of such residence, excepting he be a consul of the United States, or an agent for and a partner in some house of trade or partnership consisting of citizens of the United States actually carrying on trade within the said States.” It is not claimed that the non-resident owner in the present case was within the exception.

By the 27th section, the vessel is forfeited if any certificate of registry or record shall be fraudulently or knowingly used for her, she not then being actually entitled to the benefit thereof.

Under these provisions of the act of 1792, I do not see that any forfeiture has been incurred in the present case; and for the reason, that there is nothing in the act itself which extends any of its provisions to enrolled vessels. It was designed to apply to registered and recorded vessels, and to those two classes only; and the fihrase “certificate of record” must be confined to the class and description of vessels contemplated by the act, and expressly included within it by this precise description. An enrolled vessel was of an entirely different description; and although an enrolment is a record, and the certificate of a vessel’s enrolment is a certificate of record, yet it was not the kind of certificate then contemplated in this section of this act. This will be made quite apparent on reference to the act of 1789 [1 Stat. 55], which provided for the three classes of vessels, viz: registered, owned by our own citizens; recorded, when owned by foreigners; and enrolled, when employed in the coasting trade or fisheries, and owned by citizens of the United States. By the 35th section of this act (chapter 12), it was enacted, “that if any certificate of registry, record, or enrolment, shall be fraudulently used for any ship or vessel not entitled to the same by this act, such ship or vessel shall be forfeited.” This provision is the same as that now under consideration from the act of [1161]*11611792, excepting that it was found necessary to specify an enrolment specifically, in order to include it within the provision. The fact that it is omitted in the act of 1792, which is confined to ships registered and recorded, is certainly conclusive that it was not intended by any of the provisions of the act, to subject enrolled vessels to forfeiture for a violation of them as prohibited in the 27th section.

The provisions of the 2d section of the act of 1792, requiring owners not only to be citizens, but residents, in order to allow these ships and vessels the benefit of registry, were taken literally from the act of 1789. The same clause is then found in the 5th section, and is confined to the case of registered vessels, although the act subsequently provides for vessels being recorded, and also for their being enrolled, showing most clearly, that it was not the design of the act of 1789, to extend these provisions to but a single class, the registered ships.

The provisions of the act of 1789, which applied to the three different classes of ships and vessels, registered, recorded, and enrolled, were in 1792 and 1793 divided, and are to be found in two acts, one passed December 31, 1792 [1 Stat. 287], and the other February 18, 1793 [1 Stat 305], The first is confined to registered and recorded vessels, being chapter 1 of the session, and the other being chapter 8 of the same session, as its title imports, being “an act for enrolling and licensing ships or vessels to be employed in the coasting trade and fisheries and for regulating the same.” The forfeiture of an enrolled vessel, I apprehend therefore, If any, must be found in this last act, either directly, or by an adoption of the forfeiture created and provided for in some other act An examination of the act will show that it deals forth with a liberal hand its own penalties and forfeitures for violation of its provisions, without any occasion to grasp at others from any other act. In fact, in some instances, the same offense is punished differently by the two acts; for instance, both acts require the name of the vessel and the home port to be painted on the stem; by act of 1792, a penalty of fifty dollars is imposed if a registered or recorded vessel is found violating this provision, whilst by act of 1793, if a licensed vessel is thus found, the penalty is only twenty dollars.

An examination of the various provisions of the act of 1793 will satisfy any one, that the framers of the act *were not sparing of forfeiture, but were ready and willing to inflict this extreme penalty in all cases deemed advisable.

By the 5th section, the vessel and cargo are forfeited if she is found with a forged or altered license, or making use of a license granted for any other ship or vessel.

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Bluebook (online)
11 F. Cas. 1160, 1 Hask. 100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-henry-circtdme-1867.