Henderson v. Kanawha Dock Co.
Henderson v. Kanawha Dock Co.
Opinion of the Court
The appellee will be called the Dock Company. Pittsburg, Pa., was the home port of the steamboat Keystone State. The Dock Company, at its yards at Point Pleasant, W. Va., repaired that vessel. Its bill was not paid. It filed its libel in rem. The steamboat was sold by the marshal. The proceeds were brought into court. The appellant had a purchase-money mortgage on the boat. He will be spoken of as the mortgagee. The fund in the registry is not large enough to pay both his mortgage and the Dock Company’s bill. The question to be decided is which shall be paid.
When the owner actually authorizes the repairs to be made upon the credit of the ship, it is no longer necessary to rely upon the implied authority of the master. An owner may in person or by an agent order necessaries for a ship in a foreign port. The person who furnishes them upon such an order has a maritime lien for their price, provided that they are furnished upon the credit of the ship. The Kalorama, 10 Wall. 204, 19 L. Ed. 941. Such a lien takes precedence over a prior purchase-money mortgage. The J. E. Rumbell, 148 U. S. 1, 13 Sup. Ct. 498, 37 L. Ed. 345. It follows that the court below was right in decreeing that the bill of the Dock Company should be paid in full before the mortgagee was entitled to anything.
Those authorities have no reference to such a case as effect ruled by The Dove, 91 U. S. 384, 23 L. Ed. 354. There the Supreme Court held that an appeal from' a decree passed upon a libel did not bring up for review a decree dismissing a cross-libel, when the latter decree had not been appealed from. Mr. Justice Clifford pointed out that the appeal brought up all the issues.raised by the libel, so that they could be tried anew. The libelant might be awarded more or less than he had been given below, or his libel might be dismissed altogether. Affirmative relief, however, could not be given the respondent, because there was no case asking for it before the court. The libel and the cross-libel were separate proceedings. They‘are usually consolidated for purposes of convenience, but they are logically distinct. In this case the claim of the master raised a distinctly separate issue; having nothing whatever to do with the controversy between the appellant and the appellee. It is the dispute between them which the appellant’s appeal may require us to try de novo. It brings up no other controversies. The John and Winthrop (C. C. A.) 182 Fed. 380.
The decree below was right, and is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- HENDERSON v. KANAWHA DOCK CO. THE KEYSTONE STATE
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published