The Sabine
| Decision Date | 01 October 1879 |
| Citation | 101 U.S. 384,25 L.Ed. 982 |
| Parties | THE 'SABINE.' |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Louisiana.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.
Mr. R. H. Browne and Mr. C. B. Singleton for the appellants.
Mr. John A. Campbell, contra.
Salvage is the compensation allowed to persons by whose voluntary assistance a ship at sea or her cargo or both have been saved in whole or in part from impending sea peril, or in recovering such property from actual peril or loss, as in cases of shipwreck, derelict, or recapture.
Three elements are necessary to a valid salvage claim: 1. A marine peril. 2. Service voluntarily rendered when not required as an existing duty or from a special contract. 3. Success in whole or in part, or that the service rendered contributed to such success.
Proof of success, to some extent, is as essential as proof of service, for if the property is not saved, or if it perishes, or, in case of capture, if it is not retaken, no compensation will be allowed. Compensation as salvage is not viewed by the admiralty courts merely as pay on the principle of quantum meruit or as a remuneration pro opere et labore, but as a reward given for perilous services voluntarily rendered, and as an inducement to mariners to embark in such dangerous enterprises to save life and property.
Sufficient appears to show that important assistance was rendered by the steamer 'Mayflower' and her crew to the steamer 'Sabine,' in the nature of salvage service, as alleged in the libel. Both steamers were at the time in the Ouachita River, and each was bound on a trip to the port of New Orleans. When the 'Mayflower' approached the landing described in the libel, those in charge of her deck discovered that the steamer 'Sabine' was in distress, and it appears that those in command of the latter steamer hailed the 'Mayflower' and requested assistance. It also appears from the pleadings that the injured steamer had a cargo of six hundred and nineteen bales of cotton, consigned to various merchants at the port of destination, together with a number of passengers; that she and her cargo were in peril, owing to the fact that in attempting to back out from the landing she struck a snag or other obstruction beneath the surface of the river and became fast. Many of her flooring timbers and bottom planks were broken, and it is alleged that she had in her hold sixteen to eighteen inches of water, which was rapidly gaining on her pumps.
Success attended the efforts of the salvors, both as to the steamer and her cargo, and they delivered all the cotton to the consignees. Before the cargo was delivered to the consignees they executed to the master of the 'Sabine' an average bond, agreeing to pay their respective proportions of whatever sums should be found due as expenses, charges, and sacrifices in consequence of the said disaster.
Efforts to settle the matter amicably having failed, the owner, master, and crew of the 'Mayflower' filed a libel in the district court against the steamer 'Sabine' and her cargo and the several consignees to whom the cargo was delivered. Process issued, and the return of the marshal shows that he seized the injured steamer. Service was also made upon the several consignees, but it is not shown that the cargo saved or any part of it was ever seized.
Due appearance was entered by the respective consignees, and they filed certain exceptions to the libel. Those still relied on are as follows: 1. That there was no seizure of the cargo and that a libel in rem cannot be maintained without a seizure. 2. That the consignees are not proceeded against as owners or possessors of the cargo. 3. That a suit in personam and a suit in rem cannot be maintained in such a case. 4. That a suit in personam for salvage services must be against those for whom the services were performed. 5. That the respondents are consignees, and that the cargo had been disposed of and accounted for to those who owned the cotton.
Hearing was had, and the district court sustained the exceptions and dismissed the libel as to the excepting parties. Dissatisfied with the decree of the district court the libellants appealed to the circuit court, where they were again heard, and the circuit court affirmed the decree of the district court. Still not satisfied the libellants have appealed to this court, and now assign for error that the circuit court erred in holding that the nineteenth admiralty rule applies to the case, because, as they insist, that the libel in this case is not a suit in rem and in personam within the meaning of that rule, and that the exception should have been dismissed.
Suits for salvage may be in rem against the property saved or the proceeds thereof, or in personam against the party at whose request and for whose benefit the salvage service was performed. Power is vested in the Supreme Court to regulate the practice to be used in suits in equity or admiralty by the circuit or district courts as conferred by an act of Congress, which has been in force for many years. 5 Stat. 518; Rev. Stat., sect. 917.
Pursuant to that authority the Supreme Court prescribed the preceding rule, which correctly describes the several modes in which salvors may seek compensation for unrequited salvage services. Salvors, under the maritime law, have a lien upon the property saved, which enables them to maintain a suit in rem against the ship or cargo, or both where both are saved in whole or in part. Such a remedy is the one usually pursued, and in view of the fact that the lien is maritime and exists quite independently of possession, it ordinarily affords the best mode of securing the payment of their salvage claims. Williams & Bruce Prac., 147. The Elizabeth and Jane, 1 Ware, 35; The Bee, id. 332, 344. Suits of the kind may be enforced against the proceeds of the property, where it appears that the property saved had been previously seized under admiralty process and sold, and the proceeds paid into the registry of the court. Examples of the kind may be given, as where the property saved consisting of the ship and cargo, and the same were subsequently seized for a violation of the revenue laws, and sold as perishable property before the libel for salvage was instituted, or where there were more than one set of salvors, and the first set caused the property to be seized and sold under an order of court before the second obtained process of attachment. Cases of the kind not infrequently arise, and in all such the proceeds in the registry of the court represent the property saved, and it is clear that the suit may be against the proceeds, as provided in the nineteenth rule. The Blackwall, 10 Wall. 1, 12; The Ship Ewbank, 1 Sumn. 400.
Services of the kind are often rendered by more than one set of salvors, and where that is so, the second, if they do not join with the first set, may, as before remarked, proceed against the proceeds, or they may, pending the proceeding in the suit, apply to the court by petition to be admitted as parties to the original libel. Adams v. Bark Island City and Cargo, 1 Cliff. 210; Norris v. Bark Island City and Cargo, 1 id. 219.
Compensation in such a case is usually enforced by a libel in rem, but where the parties rendering the salvage service are employed and sent out by the...
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