The Stephen Morgan

• Decision Date: 01 October 1876
• Parties: THE 'STEPHEN MORGAN.'
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

94 U.S. 599

24 L.Ed. 266

THE 'STEPHEN MORGAN.'

October Term, 1876

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Maryland.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. F. W. Brune and Mr. Arthur G. Brown for the appellants.

Mr. I. Nevitt Steele and Mr. Thomas W. Hall, contra.

MR. JUSTICE CLIFFORD delivered the opinion of the court.

Parties who do not appeal from a final decree of a circuit court which is regular in form cannot be heard in opposition to the decree when the cause is removed here by the opposite party, unless it appears that the proceedings in removing the cause were unauthorized or irregular. They may be heard in support of the decree, and in opposition to every assignment of error filed by the appellants. The William Bagaley, 5 Wall. 377; Harrison v. Nixon, 9 Pet. 494; Canter v. Insurance Company, 3 id. 318.

Where the decree was in favor of the libellant in the District Court for a salvage service in saving goods at sea, this court held, on appeal here by the owners of the goods, that the decree was conclusive upon the libellant as to the amount of salvage awarded; that he could not, in the appellate court, claim any thing beyond that amount, since he had not, by any appeal on his part, controverted its sufficiency. Stratton v. Jarvis & Brown, 8 id. 10.

Compensation is claimed by the owner of the steamship 'Carolina' from the schooner 'Stephen Morgan,' her apparel, tackle, and furniture, for injuries caused to the steamship by the schooner in a collision which occurred between the two vessels during the early morning of the 3d of October, 1872, in the lower part of Chesapeake Bay, whereby, as the appellant alleges, the steamer was damaged to the amount of from $12,000 to $15,000.

Detailed description of the circumstances is given in the libel, from which it appears that the steamer, a vessel of eleven hundred tons burden, with a cargo of corn, was bound down the bay on a voyage from the port of Baltimore to Queenstown, Ireland, for orders, and that the schooner, a vessel of two hundred and fifty-nine tons, in ballast, was bound up the bay on a voyage from the port of New York to the port of Georgetown, in this district. Both the steamer and the schooner were in a seaworthy condition, well manned and equipped, and the evidence shows that they had competent lookouts, and that their signal-lights were properly displayed.

Certain errors of statement are exhibited in the description of the circumstances attending the collision, as given in the libel; but inasmuch as it is apparent that they were not made with intent to deceive, and that they did not have the effect to embarrass the opposite party or the courts below, they cannot have the effect to prevent the libellant from recovering just compensation for the injuries which the steamer received, if the evidence is sufficient to show that the decree below is correct upon the merits.

Process was issued; and the owners of the schooner appeared as claimants, and filed an answer.

Matters of fact are the chief reliance of the respondents; and, inasmuch as the allegations of the answer show, in the judgment of the court, that the schooner was in fault, they will be given in considerable fulness.

Prior to the collision, the mate had charge of the deck of the schooner; and the respondents allege that the weather was fair, and that it was clear overhead, with a slight mist or haze on the water; that the wind, from about southwes -by-south, was blowing a fresh and steady breeze; that the schooner was on her port tack, with all her sails set, except her main top-sail and jib top-sail; that her speed was about seven or eight knots an hour; that the mate, about ten minutes after he took charge of the deck, directed the man at the wheel to change the course of the schooner from north-by-west-half-west to north-by-west, which, as the respondents allege, was her proper course up the bay. Ten minutes later, as the respondents allege, the lookout saw a bright light ahead, about a point or a point and a half on the starboard bow of the schooner, and that the mate, who was standing aft to the leeward of the spanker-boom, saw the light about the same time, and looked at it through the glass. Though the morning was clear, the mate came to the conclusion that the vessel showing the light was at anchor, because he could only see the white light, and he thought the vessel was distant about a mile and a half, or two miles.

Estimates of the kind are necessarily more or less uncertain; but the answer states that the schooner was then a little above the light-house, and nearer to the western than the eastern shore of the bay; and the respondents admit that the schooner had plenty of room to sail and manoeuvre on each side of the place where the vessel showing the light appeared to be at anchor. When the mate first looked at the light, he told the man at the wheel that it was a ship at anchor, and he directed the helmsman to let the schooner luff about a point; and that being done, the statement is, that the light was brought to bear...