Ex parte Juan Madrazzo

Citation8 L.Ed. 808,32 U.S. 627,7 Pet. 627
PartiesEx parte JUAN MADRAZZO
Decision Date01 January 1833
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Mr. White presented a libel, in the admiralty, against the state of Georgia, claiming relief, by the aid of this court, in favor of the libellant, a subject of his Catholic majesty the king of Spain, domiciled in the city of Havana.

The right of the libellant to maintain this proceeding against the state of Georgia Mr. White stated, depended on the construction the court would give to the eleventh amendment of the constitution of the United States, which declares, that 'the judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or in equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state; or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.' If the court should be of opinion that, notwithstanding this amendment, jurisdiction could be entertained in a suit in the admiralty against a state, he asked that a citation in the nature of admiralty process, or such other proceedings in the case, as the court should deem proper, should be awarded against the state of Georgia, returnable to the next term of this court.

The libel stated, that the libellant, Juan Madrazzo, was a subject of the king of Spain; that about the 2d of July 1817, a vessel called the Isabelita, owned by him, with all the documents on board to show her ownership and character, cleared out from the city of Havana, for the coast of Africa, with a cargo of merchandise, his property, to trade there, exclusively on Spanish account, for a cargo of slaves, to be conveyed to the said city, there to be disposed of for his sole account, property and risk. On the coast of Africa, the vessel took on board, purchased with the said merchandise, one hundred and twelve slaves, and on her return-voyage towards Havana, about the first of October 1817, she was captured by a piratical or insurgent cruiser, under the commission of one Aury, or some other revolutionary flag of the revolted colonies of Spain, not then recognised as an independent government, nor in any manner authorized to act as a belligerent power, by the laws or consent of nations. The capturing vessel was called the Successor, commanded by one Moore, an American citizen, and was fitted out at Baltimore, and in the river Severn, in the state of Maryland, for the purpose of carrying on hostilities against the property and subjects of the king of Spain, with whom the United States then were and still are at peace; wherefore, the said capture of the vessel was illegal, piratical and felonious.

The Isabelita and her cargo were carried by the Successor into the port of Fernandina, in the island of Amelia, at that time a colony of Spain, but usurped by the pretended patriots or revolutionists affecting the rights of sovereignty, and a separate station as a revolted independent government, but in truth composed of a band of adventurers, chiefly American citizens, united principally by the hope of plunder, and not acknowledged as an independent government for any civil or national purpose. There, the Isabelita and her cargo were condemned as lawful prize to the illegally commissioned piratical vessel, the Successor, by a tribunal pretending to exercise admiralty jurisdiction, under the usurped and assumed government of the place.

The vessel was afterwards restored to the libellant by a decree of the district court of the United States for the district of South Carolina, exercising jurisdiction as a court of admiralty, upon a libel filed for restitution on behalf of the libellant; the proceedings in that case were invoked and referred to. The slaves, the cargo of the Isabelita, were sold under the illegal decree pronounced at Fernandina, and by one William Bowen, the purchaser, were conveyed to the Creek nation, where, at a place called 'the United States Agency,' within the limits of the said nation, they were, to the number of ninety-five, seized and taken possession of by an officer of the United States, and brought within the limits and district of Georgia. These ninety-five slaves were...

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16 cases
  • Welch v. Texas Department of Highways and Public Transportation
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • June 25, 1987
    ...was not an admiralty action, but was "a mere personal suit against a state, to recover proceeds in its possession." Ex parte Madrazzo, 7 Pet. 627, 632, 8 L.Ed. 808 (1833). This rather strained conclusion was contrary to "the assumption of all concerned" that the action was maritime in natur......
  • Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • June 28, 1985
    ...See supra, at ----. 46 In 1833, the Court dismissed an original action brought by Madrazo based on the same claim. Ex Parte Madrazo, 7 Pet. 627, 8 L.Ed. 808 (1833). The Court's one-paragraph opinion apparently dismissed the case on Eleventh Amendment grounds because it "is a mere personal s......
  • Adams v. Harris County, Texas
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas
    • July 30, 1970
    ...state against that same state, Parden v. Terminal Railway, supra, and that it also applies to suits in admiralty. Ex Parte Madrazzo, 7 Pet. 627, 32 U.S. 627, 8 L.Ed. 808 (1833). At this point, it should be made clear that suits against counties, cities, and other lesser governmental units o......
  • United States v. Lee Kaufman v. Same
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • December 4, 1882
    ...against the state, and therefore, by reason of the eleventh amendment of the constitution, could not be maintained. See, also, Ex parte Madrazzo, 7 Pet. 627. In the case, on which the plaintiff principally relies, of Meigs v. McClung, 9 Cranch, 11, in which a circuit court of the United Sta......
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