BINGHAM V. CABOT
Citation | 3 U. S. 19 |
Decision Date | 01 January 1795 |
Court | United States Supreme Court |
COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS
It is not necessary to state in the record of a case in the circuit court the absence of the district judge to show that the court was properly constituted, a judge of the Supreme Court holding the same in the absence of the district judge.
A certificate of the Governor of the Island of Martinique, acting within his legitimate authority in reference to a matter in the island, is proper evidence.
The letters of the agent of Congress resident abroad during the Revolutionary War, addressed to that body relative to the business of his trust, the resolutions of Congress on the subject, and certified copies of the same from the office of the Secretary of State, are evidence in a suit against the agent instituted by individuals claiming damages for acts done as a public agent.
Questions of prize are exclusively of admiralty jurisdiction.
If the record shows an inferior court had not jurisdiction of a case, the Supreme Court will not award a venire facias de novo.
This was a writ of error to remove the proceedings from the Circuit Court, for the District of Massachusetts, and on the return of the record, it appeared that the defendants in error, being joint owners of the armed ship called the Pilgrim, formerly commanded by Hugh Hill, had instituted an action on the case against the plaintiff in error in the Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts of June Term, 1794, in which a declaration was filed containing the following counts:
1st Count. That the plaintiff in Error, at St. Pierre, on 8 May, 1779, was indebted to the defendants in error in the sum of ,969.69, for goods sold and delivered, according to the account annexed, which account was in these words:
master, captured by the ship Pilgrim, and carried
into Martinique, previous to 8 May, 1779, at 140
livres currency per barrel, livres 140,000, which
sum in the currency of the United States, is . . . . ,969.69
Interest to 9 January 1793 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,915.84
2d Count. Quantum valebat for 1,000 barrels of flour, with an averment that they are worth ,969.69.
3rd Count. Money had and received by the plaintiff in error, to the use of the defendant in error.
4th Count. That the plaintiff in error was bailiff of the same flour, to sell and account for it to the defendants in error, with an averment that the flour had been long sold but never accounted for.
5th Count. Quantum valebat for 500 barrels of the like flour, with an averment that it was worth ,000.
6th Count. Quantum valebat for one undivided moiety of 1,000 barrels of flour, with an averment that it was worth ,000. The plea of nonassumpsit was entered to this declaration, and thereupon issue was joined.
The material facts attached to the cause were of the following import: The Pilgrim, being on a cruise off the Rock
of Lisbon, on 19 November, 1778, captured a brig called the Hope, Ole Heilm commander, and put on board William Carlton, as a prize master, who carried the supposed prize on 15 January, 1779, into Martinique, where the plaintiff in error resided as a public agent of the United States. On examination it appeared that the prize was Danish property, and that her cargo belonged to Portuguese merchants, both those nations being at peace with France and America, but there being no courts of admiralty established at that time in Martinique, competent to decide on the validity of captures as prize, made by American vessels, and the neutral captain after a long detention, on account of repairs, being solicitous to depart, the Marquis de Bouille, governor of the island (to whom authority was delegated by the Constitution of the French government, to supply the deficient parts of the civil polity) made the following order, dated 2 October, 1779, which was registered in the Admiralty Office of the Borough of St. Pierre.
The owners of the Pilgrim being dissatisfied with the proceedings that had taken place in relation to the cargo of the Hope, instituted in the Common Pleas of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, an action of trover for the 1,000 barrels of flour, in the name of William Carlton, the prize master, against Mr. Bingham, and attached Mr. Bingham's property, in the hands of Mr. Thomas Russel, of Boston, to answer the judgment of the court. To this action (which was brought to October Term, 1779) the defendant pleaded not guilty, issue was thereupon joined, and judgment was rendered for the defendant. An appeal was brought to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, at February Term, 1781, by William Carlton; it was tried on 17 February, 1784; a verdict was given for Mr. Bingham the defendant, and judgment was entered accordingly. When this action at law was commenced, Mr. Bingham by a letter dated at Martinique, 6 October, 1779, and addressed to the Commercial Committee of Congress, remonstrated against the proceeding, as he had acted bona fide, in his official character, and Congress passed the following resolutions upon the subject:
"November 30, 1779. Resolved, That Mr. Bingham's letter of 6 October last, with the papers enclosed therein, and marked No. 1, 2, 3, 4, together with a certified copy of his appointment to the place of Continental Agent, be transmitted by the President to the
Legislature of the State of Massachusetts Bay, with the following letter: "
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