THESE were kindred cases, and were argued together. They were both brought up to this court by writs of error issued under the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act; the case of Smith v. Turner being brought from the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors of the State of New York, and the case of Norris v. The City of Boston from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. The opinions of the justices of this court connect the two cases so closely, that the same course will be pursued in reporting them which was adopted in the License Cases. Many of the arguments of counsel relate indiscriminately to both. A statement of each case will, therefore, be made separately, and the arguments and opinions be placed in their appropriate class, as far as practicable.
In the first volume of the Revised Statutes of New York, pages 445, 446, title 4, will be found the law of the State whose constitutionality was brought into question in this case. The law relates to the marine hospital, then established upon Staten Island, and under the superintendence of a physician and certain commissioners of health.
The seventh section provides, that 'the health-commissioner shall demand and be entitled to receive, and in case of neglect or refusal to pay shall sue for and recover, in his name of office, the following sums from the master of every vessel that shall arrive in the port of New York, viz.:--
'1. From the master of every vessel from a foreign port, for himself and each cabin passenger, one dollar and fifty cents; for each steerage passenger, mate, sailor, or mariner, one dollar.
'2. From the master of each coasting-vessel, for each person on board, twenty-five cents; but no coasting-vessel from the States of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island shall pay for more than one voyage in each month, computing from the first voyage in each year.'
The eighth section provides that the money so received shall be denominated 'hospital moneys.' And the ninth section gives 'each master paying hospital moneys a right to demand and recover from each person the sum paid on his account.' The tenth section declares any master who shall fail to make the above payments within twenty-four hours after the arrival of his vessel in the port shall forfeit the sum of one hundred dollars. By the eleventh section, the commissioners of health are required to account annually to the Comptroller of the State for all moneys received by them for the use of the marine hospital; 'and if such moneys shall in any one year exceed the sum necessary to defray the expenses of their trust, including their own salaries, and exclusive of such expenses as are to be borne and paid as a part of the contingent charges of the city of New York, they shall pay over such surplus to the treasurer of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the city of New York, for the use of the society.'
Smith was master of the British ship Henry Bliss, which arrived at New York in June, 1841, and landed two hundred and ninety-five steerage passengers. Turner, the health-commissioner, brought an action against him for the sum of $295. To this the following demurrer was filed, viz.:--
'And the said George Smith, defendant in this suit, by M. R. Zabriskie, his attorney, comes and defends the wrong and injury, when, &c., and says that the said declaration, and the matters therein contained, in manner and form as the same are above stated and set forth, are not sufficient in law for the said plaintiff to have or maintain his aforesaid action thereof against the said defendant, and that the said defendant is not bound by law to answer the same; for that the statute of this State, in said declaration referred to, in pursuance of which the said plaintiff claims to be entitled to demand and receive from the said defendant the sum of money in said declaration named, is contrary to the Constitution of the United States, and void, and this he is ready to verify.'
The plaintiff joined in demurrer, and the Supreme Court of Judicature of the People of the State of New York overruled the demurrer, and gave judgment for the plaintiff, on the 28th of September, 1842. The cause was carried, by writ of error, to the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors, which affirmed the judgment of the court below in October, 1843. A writ of error, issued under the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act, brought the case up to this court.
