Thomas v. Gray

23 F. Cas. 942, 1836 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 12, 1836
StatusPublished

This text of 23 F. Cas. 942 (Thomas v. Gray) 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
Thomas v. Gray, 23 F. Cas. 942, 1836 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11 (S.D.N.Y. 1836).

Opinion

BETTS, District Judge.

Two objections of a preliminary character are taken on the part of the respondent — one as to the effect of the supplemental libel and the admissibility of proofs under the issue, as it is formed, and the other to the jurisdiction of the court with respect to the assault and wounding. The original libel was filed on the 5th of June On the 25th, an amendment was filed, introducing the allegations, that the libellant was compelled, by the cruel treatment of the master, to leave the vessel, and is, therefore, entitled to wages for the full period of six months. The original libel claimed that $32 and upwards were due for wages, over aud above all just allowances. The answer was filed after the filing of the supplemental libel; and it is alleged by the respondent, that the answer was put in without notice that a supplemental libel had been filed. Proceedings in admiralty are deemed to be apud acta, in open court, and by authority of the court. Clerke, Praxis, Adm. tit. 19; Clerke’s Ecel. Pr. tit. 31. The in-tendment of law is, that both parties thus have notice, in facie curia;, of ail processes in the cause, by the act of taking a step in it. When the warrant of arrest was returned [944]*944■and called in court, the supplemental libel was duly on file, and a component part of the original. The answer then interposed must, accordingly, be taken as made to the entire libel. If the supplemental libel had been filed out of court, after the return of the process, and without notice to the respondent, it would be wholly nugatory, and could not now be used as part of the pleadings, unless the answer explicitly recognised and adopted it by replying to its averments. It will be of no practical importance to pursue the inquiry, in this instance, whether this amendment became part of the plead-iugs by being regularly in court, or by the recognition of the respondent. An issue upon the allegation that a specific sum and more was due, would justify the full latitude of proof admissible under the more direct and explicit averment, that six months’ wages were due.

It is further insisted, that by the practice and the standing rules of the court, the libel-lant is precluded from offering proofs against the allegations of the answer, because his replication was not put in until ten days after the answer was filed. By a rule adopted in October, 1833, a libellant is held to admit the matters set up in the answer, if he does not, within four days after the answer is put in, file a replication thereto. See The Mary Jane [Case No. 9,213], Under a sound construction of the eighteenth rule,3 the answer cannot be regarded as put in or filed, until bail is perfected, that act being necessary to give a respondent a complete locus standi in the cause. The respondent further insists, that the ten days allowed to a libellant, by the twentieth rule, to except to an answer, should be added to the four days, so that fourteen days must elapse after bail is perfected, before the statements of an answer can have effect as being admitted on the part of a libellant. 4 It appears to me, however, to be unnecessary to settle this point of practice in this case, for, admitting that the respondent had a right to claim the advantage given him by the rule of October, 1833, he has, by his own acts, unequivocally waived its application. Or. the hearing, the libel-lant read depositions previously taken in the cause, and gave oral proofs at large against the statements in the answer, without any objection on the part of the respondent that he was precluded, by the rule referred to, from controverting those statements. So, also, the respondent himself read a deposition filed by him on the 1st of September, and called and examined a number of witnesses to maintain his defence. The objection, that the replication was filed out of time and that the answer must be regarded as full proof, is first advanced at this term, to which time the cause stood over for argu.ment. This is too late. Objections to the admissibility of evidence must be made when the proof is offered, or the party can never avail himself of them. 1 Starkie. Ev. pt. 2, p. 121. If the libellant has committed any irregularity in his proceedings, the objection must be brought forward in such manner as not to debar him of an opportunity of applying to the court for relief, by way of amendment or otherwise. It would be against every principle of sound practice, to allow the respondent, after he has permitted his adversary to continue proceedings and accumulate expenses in the suit, and upon an after thought, or upon a defect of form known to himself but concealed from his antagonist, to cause the testimony of the libellant to be rejected, and thus secure a decision of the cause upon his answer as the sole testimony. The testimony is, therefore, properly before the court; and it is not intended to intimate that the libellant, on the facts disclosed, would have been debarred from offering his proofs, if the objection to them had been made at the earliest opportunity after the replication was filed.

This court has heretofore, when it was practicable, avoided taking cognizance of causes of action arising within the harbors and territorial jurisdiction of the state, not strictly of a maritime character, and where the remedy would be merely coincident with that supplied at common law; although there is high authority sanctioning the jurisdiction in such cases. 2 Browne, Civ. & Adm. Law, 169; 3 Bl. Comm. 106; 2 Sir Leo. Jenkins, 774; Chamberlain v. Chandler [Case No. 2,-575]; Thorne v. White [Id. 13,989]. Suits in personam, founded on torts as the sole cause of action, have, therefore, not been adjudged sustainable in this court, unless the injury was received upon the high seas. See Borden v. Hiern [Id. 1,655]. But the present case is not so circumstanced, upon the facts and pleadings, as to demand an explicit judgment on that point. Proceedings in rem are sustained, when the cause of action is maritime in its nature, without regard to the locality of its origin, whether upon the high seas, or in bays or harbors where the tide ebbs and flows, or even on land, upon the acceptation that those cases are not embraced within the reservation, in the ninth section of the act of congress of September 24, 1789 (1 Stat. 77), of cases in which the common law affords an adequate remedy. But it may be essential to the jurisdiction of the court, particularly in suits for services, that the locality of the service and the nature of it should both be maritime. When the privilege of a lien on a vessel or on goods [945]*945is accorded, this court, therefore, considers itself bound to afford suitors the aid of its remedies, without regard to considerations of local jurisdiction.

. A suit in admiralty, simply for an assault and battery, would take from a jury and leave to the discretion of a single judge, the determination of an allowance of damages, and would, in that respect, be a departure from a cardinal usage and principle of American jurisprudence; but I am by no means prepared to declare such a suit not to be within the lawful jurisdiction of this court. When a claim for damages for personal wrongs is connected, as an incident, with other matters properly appertaining to the cognizance of admiralty, it is the habit of the court to take jurisdiction of both causes of action; because the personal tort may well be inquired into, and damages, by way of compensation.

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Bluebook (online)
23 F. Cas. 942, 1836 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-gray-nysd-1836.