The Lake Monroe United States

• Decision Date: 02 June 1919
• Docket Number: No. 30,30
• Citation: 250 U.S. 246,39 S.Ct. 460,63 L.Ed. 962
• Parties: THE LAKE MONROE. Petition of UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

250 U.S. 246

39 S.Ct. 460

63 L.Ed. 962

THE LAKE MONROE. Petition of UNITED STATES.

No. 30.

Argued April 21 and 22, 1919.

Decided June 2, 1919.

[Syllabus from 246-247 intentionally omitted] Mr. Assistant Attorney General Brown, for petitioner.

Mr. Edward E. Blodgett, of Boston, Mass., for respondent.

Mr. Justice PITNEY delivered the opinion of the Court.

Upon petition of the United States this court granted an order to show cause why a writ of prohibition or mandamus should not be issued in order to prevent the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, sitting in admiralty, from directing the seizure, attachment, or arrest of a steam vessel known as the Lake Monroe, owned and operated by the government of the United States, to satisfy a claim of the master and part owner of the American auxiliary fishing schooner Helena for damages arising out of a collision between the two vessels which occurred on October 8, 1918, off the coast of Cape Cod.

A libel having been filed in the District Court in behalf of the Helena against the Lake Monroe to recover damages, and praying that process issue for the seizure and attachment of the steamship, the United States appearing specially, filed suggestions to the effect that, as the steamer was the property of the United States and in its possession and control, the court was without jurisdiction to enforce claims against her by process.

The essential facts are as follows: The Lake Monroe, while in process of construction on the Great Lakes, was requisitioned and completed by the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, and on completion was delivered to the United States Shipping Board for operation, and thereafter assigned by that board, through the Emergency Fleet Corporation, to the firm of William H. Randall & Co., of Boston, as operating and managing agents, that firm being a copartnership having experience in the operation of privately owned vessels for commercial purposes. They selected the master and other officers of the vessel, put them in charge of her, and furnished her crew; and thereafter they manned, equipped, and repaired her, collected freight moneys from the consignees, and paid the expenses of manning, equipping, and supplying her, and other running expenses, and for these services they were to be paid by, and were to account for the moneys received by them to, the Emergency Fleet Corporation as the agent of the United States Shipping Board. At the time of the collision the Lake Monroe was loaded with coal, and operating under a charter executed by Randall & Co., as agents of the Shipping Board, to the New England Fuel & Transportation Company, a private concern in Boston; the cargo having been purchased from a private owner for private use, and the freight for its carriage paid by the Transportation Company to Randall & Co.

The District Court, conceding that the Lake Monroe, being a government-owned vessel, would be exempt from arrest except for the provisions of section 9 of the Shipping Board Act of September 7, 1916, c. 451, 39 Stat. 728, 730 (Comp. St. § 8146e), held that, because at the time of the collision she was employed solely as a merchant vessel, by the terms of that section she was subject to arrest on process in rem to answer for the collision.

It is the principal contention of the government that the Shipping Board Act has no application to the Lake Monroe because she was requisitioned by the President through the Emergency Fleet Corporation under the authority of other legislation, was documented in the name of the United States, and then employed by the President through the Shipping Board and the Fleet Corporation. This contention renders it necessary to review the several acts of legislation and the executive action that has been had pursuant thereto.

The Act of September 7, 1916, passed before the United States entered the great war, but when our commerce already was feeling the ill effects of the world-wide shortage in shipping occasioned by that war, is entitled:

'An act to establish a United States Shipping Board for the purpose of encouraging, developing, and creating a naval auxiliary and naval reserve and a merchant marine to meet the requirements of the commerce of the United States with its territories and possessions and with foreign countries; to regulate carriers by water engaged in the foreign and interstate commerce of the United States; and for other purposes.'

It created a board of five commissioners, and authorized them (section 5 [Comp. St. § 8146c]), with the approval of the President, to cause to be constructed and equipped, in American shipyards or elsewhere, or to purchase, lease, or charter, 'vessels suitable, as far as the commercial requirements of the marine trade of the United States may permit for use as naval auxiliaries or army transports or for other naval or military purposes' and also (section 7 [Comp. St. § 8146d]) to charter, lease, or sell to any citizen of the United States any vessel so purchased or constructed.

The important section 9 in its original form, provided as follows.

'Sec. 9. That any vessel purchased, chartered, or leased from the board may be registered or enrolled and licensed, or both registered and enrolled and licensed, as a vessel of the United States and entitled to the benefits and privileges appertaining thereto: Provided, that foreign-built vessels admitted to American registry or enrollment and license under this act, and vessels owned, chartered, or leased by any corporation in which the United States is a stockholder, and vessels sold, leased, or chartered to any person a citizen of the United States, as provided in this act, may engage in the coastwise trade of the United States. Every vessel purchased, chartered, or leased from the board shall, unless otherwise authorized by the board, be operated only under such registry or enrollment and license. Such vessels while employed solely as merchant vessels shall be subject to all laws, regulations, and liabilities governing merchant vessels, whether the United States be interested therein as owner, in whole or in part, or hold any mortgage, lien, or other interest therein.'

There followed prohibitions not necessary now to be particularly considered.

Section 11 (Comp. St. § 8146f) authorized the Shipping Board to form one or more corporations under the laws of the District of Columbia for the purchase, construction, equipment, lease, charter, maintenance, and operation of merchant vessels in the commerce of the United States, the total capital stock not to exceed $50,000,000, and the Board to acquire for and on behalf of the United States not less than a majority of the capital stock. The act contained numerous provisions imposing duties upon common carriers by water, and conferring powers of regulation upon the Shipping Board.

The members of this Board were appointed by the President in December, 1916, and, having been confirmed by the Senate, were formally organized in the following month.

By the time the United States declared war, April 6, 1917, the world's merchant shipping had reached the stage of demoralization. The President, by a proclamation dated February 5, 1917, had declared an...