The Julia
| Decision Date | 12 July 1893 |
| Citation | 57 F. 233 |
| Parties | THE JULIA. v. THE JULIA. BUTLER et al. SIX OTHER LIBELS v. SAME. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
C. B Northrop, for exceptors.
This case comes up on exceptions to the report of the special master.
The steamer Julia was engaged in trading between the city of Charleston and the adjacent waters, carrying freight. She was libeled and arrested at the suit for wages of certain of her crew. She was also libeled by two material men, S. B. Butler and John F. Riley, in separate libels, on each of which a warrant of arrest was issued. The same proctor represented the crew and these two material men, and, in advertising the warrant of arrest under admiralty rule No. 9, he inserted the libels of the latter also. A number of libels were then filed by material men, in each of which warrants of arrest were issued, but in no instance were any of these followed by publication. This is the home port of the Julia. The material men claim under a statute of the state of South Carolina Gen. St. § 2389 et seq. This statute gives a lien to any person for labor performed, materials used, or labor and materials furnished in the construction of vessels, or for provisions, stores, or other articles furnished for or on account of any ship or vessel in this state, the lien to be next to seamen's wages. If the claims be held by more than one person, they are marshaled, and the proceeds of sale distributed without preference. If these proceeds be insufficient, the distribution is pro rata, except that labor shall have a percentage one-third greater than material men.
The Julia has been sold under order of this court in the libels for wages. After paying the wages and costs, the proceeds are largely insufficient to pay all the material men. The master has reported a taxation of the costs to be paid, allowing each material man proctors' costs. The remainder, he reports, should be distributed pro rata. One of the libelants, Riley, is a master mechanic. In his bill for repairs he itemizes and charges so much for labor and so much for materials.
Butler and Riley except to the report. Both claim priority over all other material men, because they filed the first libels because, also, they were the only libelants who advertised; and Riley insists that the master was wrong in not recognizing the preference claimed for the labor items in his bill.
No question has been made as to the constitutionality of the South Carolina statute. That question has not been considered, and is not now decided.
The first question is, have the material men who filed the first libels secured thereby priority of payment out of the proceeds in the hands of the court? This, as we have seen, is the home port of the Julia. But for the state statute these libelants would have no lien, (The Young Mechanic, 2 Curt 405;) and the nature and extent of the lien is measured by the state statute, (The Mary Gratwick, 2 Sawy. 344.) It would seem, therefore, that if the state statute which creates the lien gives it to all material men alike, and puts them on an equal footing, this court, administering the lien, would do likewise. It is insisted, however, that, although the state statute creates the liens, when they come into this court they are treated and enforced as maritime liens, and that, with regard to maritime liens, the preference is under the rule prior petens,--first come, first served. There is respectable authority for this with regard to maritime liens. Ben. Adm. § 560; Cohen Adm. p. 197. But these writers are overruled by authority, as well as by reason. They do not state the law correctly. The true doctrine is that liens like these have equal rank, are not affected by the order in which the suits were brought, and share pro rata. The J. W. Tucker, 20 F. 129, in which all the cases are quoted and the rule stated; The Arcturus, 18 F. 743; The Grapeshot, 22 F. 123; Vandewater v. Mills, 19 How. 82. And Mr. Henry, in his Admiralty Jurisdiction, shows that this is the true doctrine. Indeed, the...
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