Erie Railroad Company v. Erie Western Transportation Company

• Decision Date: 14 January 1907
• Docket Number: No. 134,134
• Citation: 204 U.S. 220,51 L.Ed. 450,27 S.Ct. 246
• Parties: ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY, Petitioner. v. ERIE & WESTERN TRANSPORTATION COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

204 U.S. 220

27 S.Ct. 246

51 L.Ed. 450

ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY, Petitioner.

v ERIE & WESTERN TRANSPORTATION COMPANY.

No. 134.

Argued December 14, 1906.

Decided January 14, 1907.

Messrs. Charles E. Kremer and W. O. Johnson for petitioner.

[Argument of Counsel from page 221 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Harvey D. Goulder, Frank S. Masten, and S. H. Holding for respondent.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 222-223 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a libel in admiralty, brought by the petitioner as successor in corporate identity to the Union Steamboat Company, to recover a part of a sum paid by it to the respondent as the result of previous admiralty proceedings which came before this court several times. The former proceedings were begun by the respondent, as owner of the propeller Conemaugh and bailee of her cargo, to recover for damages to both by a collision between her and the propeller New York. After hearings below (53 Fed. 553, 27 C. C. A. 154, 54 U. S. App. 248, 82 Fed. 819, 30 C. C. A. 628, 56 U. S. App. 146, 86 Fed. 814) it was decided by this court, on certiorari, that both vessels were in fault, and that the representatives of the cargo could recover their whole damages from the New York. The New York, 175 U. S. 187, 44 L. ed. 126, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 67. Thereupon the district court entered a decree dividing the damages sustained by the steamers, requiring the New York to pay to the Conemaugh on that account $13,083.33 and interest, and further required it to pay all the damages to the cargo of the latter,—the insurers on cargo who had intervened receiving their share, and the Conemaugh receiving the residue as trustee. The owners of the New York then applied to this court for a mandamus directing the district court to divide the damages to cargo. This was denied on the ground that, if the court below erred, the remedy was by appeal. Ex parte Union S. B. Co. 178 U. S. 317, 44 L. ed. 1084, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 904. Upon that intimation an appeal was taken to the circuit court of appeals for the sixth circuit, and after a motion to dismiss had been denied (44 C. C. A. 38, 104 Fed. 561) the decree was affirmed (47 C. C. A. 232, 108 Fed. 102). On a second certiorari that decree was affirmed by this court. 189 U. S. 363, 47 L. ed. 854, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 504. The New York paid the damages and brought this suit.

The ground of the last-mentioned decree was that the claim of the New York was not open, and the circuit court of appeals denied leave to amend the pleadings, for the reason that the petitioner would be left free to assert its claim in an independent proceeding. 47 C. C. A. 232, 108 Fed. 107. In the present case the district court followed this expression of the circuit court of appeals, and made a decree giving the petitioner one half of the damages paid by it on account of cargo. The circuit court of appeals for the seventh circuit, however before which the present case came on appeal, held that the whole matter was res judicata by the final decree in the former cause, and ordered the libel dismissed. 142 Fed. 9. Thereupon a third certiorari was granted by this court, and the record is now before us.

The respondent set up three defenses, below and here. It argued that there was no jurisdiction in admiralty over the claim in its present form, that the petitioner had no case upon the merits, and that it was concluded by the former decree. The circuit court of appeals decided against the first two points before sustaining the third. We shall take them up in their order. The jurisdiction appears to us tolerably plain. If it be assumed that the right to contribution is an incident of the joint liability in admiralty, and is not res judicata, it would be a mere historical anomaly if the admiralty courts were not free to work out their own system, and to finish the adjustment of maritime rights and liabilities. Indeed, we imagine that this would not have been denied very strenuously had the question been raised by proper pleadings in connection with the original suit. But if the right is not barred by the former decree, it would be still more anomalous to send the parties to a different tribunal to secure that right at this stage. For the decree was correct as far as it went, and, by the hypothesis, might stop where it did without impairing the claim to contribution. That claim is of admiralty origin and must be satisfied before complete justice is done. It cannot be that, because the admiralty has carried out a part of its theory of justice, it is prevented by that fact alone from carrying out the rest. See The Mariska, 47 C. C. A. 115, 107 Fed. 989.

On the merits also we have no great difficulty. The rule of the common law, even, that there is no contribution between wrongdoers, is subject to exception. Pollock, Torts, 7th ed. 195, 196. Whatever its origin, the admiralty rule in this country is well known to be the other way. The North Star (Reynolds v. Vanderbilt) 106 U. S. 17, 27 L. ed. 91, 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 41; The Sterling (The Sterling v. Petersen) 106 U. S. 647, 27 L. ed. 98, 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 89; Admiralty rule, 59. Compare The Frankland [1901] P. 161. And it is established, as it logically follows, that the division of damages extends to what one of the parties pays to the owners of cargo on board the other. The Chattahoochee, 173 U. S. 540, 43 L. ed. 801, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 491. The right to the division of the latter element does not stand on subrogation, but arises directly from the tort. The liability of the New York, under our practice, for all the damage to cargo, was one of the...