The L. W. Eaton

15 F. Cas. 1119, 9 Ben. 289, 1878 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 26, 1878
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 15 F. Cas. 1119 (The L. W. Eaton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The L. W. Eaton, 15 F. Cas. 1119, 9 Ben. 289, 1878 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210 (S.D.N.Y. 1878).

Opinion

BLATCHFORD, District Judge.

This is a libel in rem, in admiralty, against the schooner L. W. Eaton. A question has arisen, the claimant having answered, as to whether the vessel was arrested within waters subject to the jurisdiction of the district court of the United States for the Southern district of New York, under the process issued herein. The parties have stipulated as follows as to the facts: “The schooner L. W. Eaton was attached by the marshal, under [1120]*1120the process issued in tliis cause, on tlie 1st day of April, 1S73, the said vessel being, at the time, afloat in the navigable waters of the Hudson river, lying west of Manhattan Island and to the south of the mouth of Spuyten Duyvil creek, and where the tide •ebbed and flowed, she being fastened, by means of lines, to a dock at Jersey City, in the state of New Jersey, and outside low-water mark, said wharf projecting into the navigable waters of the Hudson river lying west of Manhattan Island and to the south of the mouth of Spuyten Duyvil creek. A motion was made on behalf of the claimant to discharge the said attachment, on affidavits on file, before appearance, on the ¿ground that said vessel was not at the time within the jurisdiction of the court, which motion was denied, and thereupon the vessel was bonded and the answer filed.”

Prior to the enactment of the Revised Statutes of the United States on the 22d ■of June, 1874, it had been the established law of this district, that the locus in quo In this case was within the jurisdiction •of the Southern district of New York, in admiralty. The question arose in the case of U. S. v. The Julia Lawrence, in tins •court, and was decided by Judge Betts, in May, 1860, and jurisdiction was always asserted and exercised in accordance with that decision. See The Argo [Case No. 515]. The opinion of Judge Betts has never been published at length. A synopsis of its conclusions is to be found in the New York Daily Transcript for December 6, 1871, and in 6 Am. Law Rev. 383 [Case No. 15,502]. The full text of the opinion is as follows: “The libel of information charges, that, on the 28th of September, 1858, the collector of ■customs of this port, on waters navigable from the sea by vessels of ten or more tons "burthen, within the Southern district of New York, and within the jurisdiction/ of this •court, seized the ship Julia Lawrence as forfeited to the use of the United States, for certain offences charged in said libel of information to have been committed by said ship against the revenue laws of the United States. The claimant of the ship filed an •answer negativing each averment in the libel, and the cause was brought to hearing on the pleadings singly, as if upon an issue by demurrer to the libel for want of jurisdiction in this court over the place of ■seizure, it being admitted, on both sides, that the ship, when seized, was attached to a pier or dock on the New Jersey side of the river, and upon waters of the bay. It not being made to appear by the claimant, that the waters where she lay were not navigable for vessels of ten tons burthen, the averment in the libel of that fact must be deemed admitted by the pleading; and. accordingly, the locus in quo of the seizure will be within the cognizance of this court, irrespective of tile territorial boundary of the state of New York, if the surface of the waters on which she was seized was within the jurisdiction of the Southern district of New York. It may be observed, that there appears to be no restriction to the discretion of congress in respect to the territorial limits within which they may appoint the jurisdiction of the inferior courts erected by them, to be exercised. 3 Story, Const. Law, § 1501. Those courts are usually so arranged as to have their powers restricted to the particular state to which the court is assigned; but this is not invariably so, either as to the parties or subject matters of their jurisdiction. Act Feb. 28, 1839, § 1 (3 Stat. 321); Act March 3, 1849, § 5 (9 Stat. 400). Two questions are debated on this issue in law. The first regards the actual boundary line' of the Southern district of New York. This was coterminous with that of the state of New York at the time the district was erected and defined (Act Sept. 24, 1789, § 2; 1 Stat. 73j, when the western boundaries of the counties on the south of the state were adopted as fixing the boundary of the United States judicial district. There is, however, more distinctness of discrimination in the restatement of that boundary line in the act of April 9, 1814 (3 Stat. 120, § 1). It is not necessary to moot the question whether any variation of that line, made by assent of New York, subsequent to the establishment of the United States judicial or collection districts, would affect the dimensions and authorities of those districts, without the full concurrence of the United States government in such change, because, in my opinion, the arrangement entered into between the states of New York and New Jersey respecting their mutual boundary line, no way impairs or conflicts with any jurisdiction or power possessed by the United States under its laws preceding that adjustment, or passed in approval or confirmation of it. On the contrary, congress, in assenting to the agreement entered into between the states of New York and New Jersey, relative to the limits of those respective states, which becomes a territorial boundary upon one side of this judicial district, provides, in express terms, that ‘nothing therein contained shall ne construed to impair or in any manner affect, any right of jurisdiction of the United States in and over the islands or waters which form the subject of the said agreement.’ Act June 28, 1834 (4 Stat. 711, § 1). Although, therefore, the territorial ownership or authority of New York may not now. as on the passage of the judiciary act of 1789 (1 Stat. 77, § 9; 1 Rev. St. N. Y. pt. 1, c. 1, tit. 1, § 1). embrace the whole breadth of soil to the New Jersey shore, yet the United States retain the same jurisdiction over the waters of the bay it originally possessed on the organization of its courts. The language of the judiciary act is, that the district courts shall ‘have exclusive original cognizance of all civil causes of admiralty and maritime juris[1121]*1121diction, including all seizures under laws of impost, navigation, or trade of the United States, where the seizures are made on waters which are navigable from the sea by vessels of ten or more tons burthen, within their respective districts.’ Act Sept. 24, 1780, § 9 (1 Stat. 77). By the subsequent act of March 2, 1799 (1 Stat. 695, § 89), the trial of any fact in issue upon such seizures is directed to be within the judicial district in which the penalty may have accrued. The observations already made sufficiently indicate the judgment of the court, that the libel of information avers facts which constitute full jurisdiction in the court over the case as described in the statute, that is, the of-fence was committed, and the arrest was made, on waters of the bay below low water mark on the Jersey shore of Hudson’s river. An amendment of that act, by the act approved Feb. 28, 1839 (5 Stat. 322, § 3), by which it is enacted, that ‘all pecuniary penalties and forfeitures accruing, under the laws of the United States may be sued for and recovered in any court of competent jurisdiction in the state or district where such penalties or forfeitures have accrued, or in which the offender or offenders may be found,’ renders still more plain the purpose of congress not to restrict the jurisdiction of the court, in cases of penalties and forfeitures, to points of rigorous locality.

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Bluebook (online)
15 F. Cas. 1119, 9 Ben. 289, 1878 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-l-w-eaton-nysd-1878.