Tunno v. Betsina

24 F. Cas. 316, 5 Am. Law Reg. 406
CourtDistrict Court, D. South Carolina
DecidedJuly 1, 1857
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 24 F. Cas. 316 (Tunno v. Betsina) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tunno v. Betsina, 24 F. Cas. 316, 5 Am. Law Reg. 406 (D.S.C. 1857).

Opinion

MAGRATH, District Judge.

The libel in this case asks the aid of the court in three modes of relief: First, in a stipulation from the other part owners for the return of the vessel; -second, in having .an account taken • of her earnings; third, in a decree for sale, upon two grounds:' 1st, an irreconcilable disagreement among the owners, as to the mode in which the vessel should be employed; 2dly, misrepresentation in inducing the libellant to become the purchaser of the shares now owned by him in this vessel. The application for the stipulation, intended to secure the interest of a dissenting part owner, in case of a loss in a voyage undertaken against his wishes, has now become a familiar subject for the exercise of admiralty jurisdiction. He who is unwilling that a vessel shall proceed on a given voyage, may give notice thereof to his co-owners; and in case of loss he cannot be made liable to contribute (Abbott, 123), or he may apply to this court, and will be entitled to a stipulation. by which, in the event of loss, they shall be bound to him for the value of his share (Id.). So much of the prayer in the libel as relates to the stipulation has therefore been granted. It may not be improper for me to say. that the stipulation, in such matters, is in its nature provisional. It is not treated nor allowed as a continuing, permanent arrangement, by which the rights of an owner are protected and preserved; but simply as a present measure of relief, afforded in a particular case, for a particular voyage.. And when the application for it is regularly made, it then is apparent that a fixed discordance has arisen between the owners, which would seem to call for the exercise of some relief to be adopted, either by them or for them, more perfect and enduring. In relation to the account which is prayed for, it is,- in this branch of the case, sufficient for me to say, that considered in itself as a separate 'and independent mode of relief, it cannot be obtained in the admiralty. The Orleans v. Phœbus, 11 Pet. [36 U. S.] 175; Minturn v. Maynard, 17 How. [58 U. S.] 477. An account will be ordered as an incident of other matters concerning which the court has admitted cognizance. Davis v. Child [Case No. 3,628]. In this case, therefore, the question for an account depends on another question involving the sale prayed for. If a sale can be ordered, then, before the court can divide the proceeds, the mutual accounts of the co-owners must properly be entertained and adjusted, in making a just distribution. Andrews v. Wall, 3 How. [44 U. S.) 568.

The question of the power of this court to order a’ sale, in a case of disagreement among part owners, has been, and is still, in some respects,' a matter of equal importance and doubt. In coming to that conclusion which I shall now announce, it is fitting that with it I should -state the' reasons which have guided and- governed me.

In Great Britaiii,- the power of'the 'a'dmi-ralty to order á sale among .part'-own.eri,'in case of disagreement, has -been ..hitherto stoutly denied. The case of Ousten v. Hebden, 1 Wils. 101, is cited as the direct-authority for the opinion that the-.admiralty cannot compel a sale of a ship, on the application of a part owner who objects to a certain voyage; and Lord Stowell, in The Apollo, 1 Hagg. Adm. 300, speaking of the stipulation, has declared that “beyond this limit, the court has not moved.” But it .aids us very little to determine satisfactorily. the true nature and extent of the admi- ■ ralty and maritime jurisdiction in the courts of the United States, to refer to the opinions of the courts in Gieat Britain. In the first place, it is now generally conceded, that the jurisdiction of this court, intended to be exercised in the United States,- is not limited, ■as it was known in Great Britain anterior to the Revolution, and us-declared by the courts of that kingdom. De Lovio v. Boit [Case No. 3,776]; The Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh, 12 How. [53 U. S.] 443. In the next place, it is not always that we can be certain. that even in the judgments of these courts, will we find a reliable exposition of the powers which have been admitted to belong to this jurisdiction. In Great Britain, the right of the admiralty to order a stipulation is now undoubted; yet in the court of king’s bench. Chief Justice Holt held that the practice was unlawful; and by others [317]*317the exercise of the jurisdiction was considered an assumption. Abbott, 125. No one familiar with the acrimonious controversy which was carried on in Great Britain, and had for its object the suppression of the admiralty, and who recalls the disadvantages under which the admiralty contended, will hesitate in understanding why a judge so eminent as Lord Stowell should acknowledge the abstemiousness with which the admiralty always proceeded in the exercise of its jurisdiction. Under the influence of this feeling, the admiralty in Great Britain, in its entertainment of all cases relating to the possession of vessels, has discriminated by separating such questions, into possessory, where the mere fact of. possession was concerned, and petitory, in which a question of title was involved; in the former class, exercising, and in the latter, refusing the exercise of. its jurisdiction.' But in the United States, the distinction between these classes of cases has never been recognized, and courts of admiralty from the earliest period, in this country, have entertained jurisdiction in cases involving not only the question of possession, but that of title also. The Tilton [Case No. 14,054]. It need scarcely be observed that in this they exercised a familiar jurisdiction which would not have been attempted by a judge holding admiralty jurisdiction in Great Britain. In like manner in the United States, although a mortgage of a vessel has been held not to be a marine contract or hypothecation; and on that ground not to be foreclosed in the admiralty (Bogart v. The John Jay, 17 How. [58 U. S.] 399), yet the right of the mortgagee to intervene in the admiralty, if the vessel was within the jurisdiction of the court, has been always maintained. Andrews v. Wall, 3 How. [44 U. S.] 568. But in England, proceeding from the same doubt of the right of the court to interfere in a question where title was even indirectly involved, a mortgagee- could not intervene in behalf of his interest, until by the 3 & 4 Vict. c. 05, § 3, special authority is given to the admiralty to entertain jurisdiction in such eases. Abb Shipp. 130. While, then, the enactment of the British parliament may be relied on as showing that until its passage there wa« in the court of admiralty of that kingdom no authority to adjudicate a question concerning a vessel in which title is involved, at the same time we are able to see that the courts of the United- States, by the exercise of the same jurisdiction without any corresponding legislative provision, very plainly indicated their opinion that a question affecting the title was not per se beyond their jurisdiction.

We are then enabled, in opening our examination of the question here to be decided, to start with two principles of admitted admiralty jurisdiction in the United States;. 1st. that disagreement among part owners as to the employment of a vessel is a ground for the interference of this court, admittedly so far as may be necessary to secure to the dissentient minority the value of their interest; and 2d, that in rejecting any distinction between the possessory and petitory proceedings, a jurisdiction was affirmed, although a question of title might be involved. It is well, also, to be borne in mind, that in the case of Ousten v. Hebben, the question of a sale was not before the court.

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Bluebook (online)
24 F. Cas. 316, 5 Am. Law Reg. 406, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tunno-v-betsina-scd-1857.