New York Dock Co v. the Poznan, 229
| Decision Date | 11 April 1927 |
| Docket Number | No. 229,229 |
| Citation | 47 S.Ct. 482,274 U.S. 117,71 L.Ed. 955 |
| Parties | NEW YORK DOCK CO. v. THE POZNAN et al |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. A. J. Feild and Joseph S. Auerbach, both of New York City, for petitioner.
Messrs. George Whitefield Betts, Jr., and Mark W. Maclay, both of New York City, for respondent.
This case involves the right of a wharf owner to preferential payment from the proceeds of a vessel, for wharfage furnished the vessel while in the custody of a United States marshal under a warrant of arrest in admiralty. The owner of the steamship Poznan entered into a contract with petitioner, the owner of a private pier in New York harbor, for the use of the pier for discharging cargo from December 1, 1920, until completion. The rate agreed upon was $250 per day, plus certain incidental charges not now material. On December 2, 1920, the Poznan was made fast to the pier. Later in the day, she was arrested by the United States marshal for the district upon libels, afterward consolidated into a single cause, for nondelivery of the vessel's cargo and for damages for breach of contracts of affreightment. The mrrshal allowed the vessel to remain at the pier. Later, on application of one of the libeling cargo owners, the District Court ordered the delivery of a part of the cargo which that libelant had shipped and made the order applicable to all other libelants who should make a like claim. The discharge of the cargo was then begun and deliveries were made to the several libelants in the consolidated cause, including respondent, the John B. Harris Company.
After the cargo had been about one-half discharged, the charterer applied to the District Court for leave to move the vessel to another pier where the cargo could be removed more expeditiously; but, on request of some of the libelants and a committee representing the ship- pers, the application was denied on January 5, 1921. The vessel was unloaded by February 18, 1921. Delivery of the cargo from the pier was completed March 1, 1921, but the vessel remained fast to the pier to and including March 11, 1921, when she was removed.
Meanwhile, the marshal having declined to pay the bill for wharfage without an order of the court, petitioner, in April, 1921, filed its libel against the vessel for the balance of wharfage charges unpaid, aggregating $17,462. By order of the District Court, the libelants in the consolidated cause were permitted to intervene. Respondent, the John B. Harris Company, served notice of intervention, and filed its answer denying the allegations in the libel and praying that it be dismissed on the ground, among others, that the wharfage was furnished while the vessel was in the custody of the marshal, and hence no maritime lien could arise. Respondent has since prosecuted the defense in behalf of all the other libelants in the consolidated cause.
The vessel was later sold under an order in the consolidated cause and the proceeds, which were not enough to satisfy the libelants, paid into the registry of the court. The libelants in the consolidated suit have made common cause by stipulation that the recovery under the final decree should be paid to trustees and distributed in accordance with the instructions of a committee representing all of them. The committee found the total claims of the libelants to exceed the amount of the proceeds of the ship. A pro rata distribution has been made to the claimants and an adequate amount reserved to pay the demand of the petitioner, if allowed in this suit. The marshal, although refusing petitioner's request for payment of the wharfage charge, nevertheless included it in his bill of costs and expenses in the consolidated cause and charged his commission on this amount. The court disallowed these items, but 'without prejudice to any rights of the New York Dock Company to have recourse against the proceeds of the vessel. * * *'
The District Court, in the present libel, allowed as a preferential payment from the proceeds of the ship, the reasonable value of the benefits resulting to the consolidated libelants from the wharfage and incidental service furnished by petitioner, to be determined by a special master. This was found by the master and held by the District Court to be the reasonable value of the wharfage. A decree for this amount, less certain payments on account made by the owner of the ship, pursuant to the original contract of wharfage (The Poznan (D. C.) 297 F. 345), was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (9 F. (2d) 838). This court granted certiorari. 269 U. S. 547, 46 S. Ct. 106, 70 L. Ed. 405.
The court below held that as the wharfage was furnished after the arrest of the ship, and while it was in the custody of the law, no maritime lien could attach, and that a preferential payment could not be supported upon any other theory applicable to the facts of this case.
A question much argued, both here and below, was whether the case could be considered an exception to the general rule that there can be no martitime lien for services furnished a vessel while in custodia legis. Cf. The Young America (D. C.) 30 F. 789; The Nisseqogue (D. C.) 280 F. 174; Paxson v. Cunningham (C. C. A.) 63 F. 132; The Willamette Valley (C. C. A.) 66 F. 565. But, in the view we take, the case does not turn upon possible exceptions to that rule, as we think petitioner's right of recovery depends, as the District Court ruled, not upon the existence of a maritime lien, but upon principles of general application which should govern whenever a court undertakes the administration of property or a fund brought into its custody for the benefit of suitors.
The libelants in the consolidated cause were not only concerned as owners in securing delivery of the cargo, but as lienors they were interested in the ship and, as eventually appeared, in the whole of her proceeds. Serv- ice rendered to the ship after arrest, in aid of the...
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