THIS was an appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Maryland, sitting in admiralty.
It was a libel filed by one corporation against another corporation in the District Court of Maryland, under the circumstances stated in the opinion of the court. The District Court decreed in favor of the libellants, the appellees, and awarded damages to the amount of $7,000.36. The Circuit Court, on appeal, affirmed the decree, and the railroad company appealed to this court.
It was argued by Mr. Schley and Mr. Donaldson for the appellants, and by Mr. Dobbin for the appellees.
The counsel for the appellants made the following points:1. That the District Court of the United States has no jurisdiction in a case like the present.
The cases show that 'marine torts,' over which courts of admiralty have jurisdiction, are trespasses done and committed on navigable waters, as in the case of a collision between two vessels; and a main ground on which such cases have been put is the power in rem possessed by those courts, but not by courts of common law.
The placing and leaving the pile in the bed of the Susquehanna, and within the body of a county, was a nuisance at common law, and the appellee's remedy was in the State courts, in an action on the case for particular damage caused by that nuisance. Indeed, the ordinary rules of an admiralty court in apportioning damages could not be made applicable to such a case.
The question is not one of mere locality. The subject matter itself is not within the admiralty jurisdiction; and it is believed that none of the decisions of this court have gone to an extent which would include it.
Conkling, 21, 24.
Thomas v. Lane, 2 Sumn., 9, 10.
Cutler v. Rae, 7 How., 737.
Schooner Tilton, 5 Mason, 465.
Waring v. Clark, 5 How., 467.
Angell on Tide Waters, 113.
Hancock v. York N. and B. R. W. Co., 70 E. C. L. Rep., 347.
Abbott on Shipping, 233.
9 Stat. at Large, 1851.
2. That the appellees could not recover in this case, because they were engaged in an unlawful act at the time when the accident occurred, which caused the injury complained of. The steamer Superior left her wharf at Havre de Grace, with a fleet of canal boats, on Sunday, the 11th May, 1856, and while engaged in towing the boats down the Susquehanna on that day, struck the pile which disabled her.
It is the law of Maryland, that no person whatever shall work or do any bodily labor, or willingly suffer any of his servants to do any manner of work or labor, on the Lord's day, works of necessity and charity excepted; and a penalty is prescribed for the breach of the law.
There is nothing in this provision inconsistent with any of the laws of the United States regulating commerce, and the Federal courts would therefore take notice of and conform to the law of the State.
Act of Assembly of Md., 1723, c. 16, sec. 10.
Bank of U.S. v. Owens, 2 Pet., 527.
Bosworth v. Inhabitants of Swansea, 10 Metc., 363.
Robeson v. French, 12 Metc., 24.
Phillips v. Innes, 4 Clark and Fin., 234.
Smith on Contracts, 171.
3. That even if the appellees could in the present case recover in admiralty against any party, they still had no cause of action against the appellants; the act of negligence which caused the injury not having been the act of the appellants or of its servants.
The evidence shows that the Superior struck upon a sight-pile driven by the servants of Messrs. Goss, Cooke, & Co., who had contracted for a stipulated compensation to build the piles of the bridge across the Susquehanna.
By the second sentence of the 9th section of that contract, the contractors were 'to furnish (and remove when done with) all scaffolding and piles that may be used while building;' which terms, according to the testimony of engineers and experts, included the sight-piles, which were necessary to the proper construction of the bridge. It was the duty of the contractors to remove these sight-piles when done with; and the act of the contractors, or of their servants, in sawing off those piles below the surface, and leaving them so as to obstruct the navigation, was in no sense the act of the appellant.
There is nothing to show that the appellant ever had knowledge of the fact that these piles were sawed off, instead of being removed, as the contract required; and the termination of the contract could not make the appellants liable for the consequences of a previous wrongful act of the contractors, the appellants not consenting either to making or continuing the nuisance.
Allen v. Hayward, 53 E. C. L., 974.