The Talus
| Decision Date | 25 January 1918 |
| Docket Number | 3119. |
| Citation | 248 F. 670 |
| Parties | THE TALUS. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Joseph N. McAleer, James H. Kirkpatrick, and Palmer Pillans, all of Mobile, Ala. (M. V. Hanaw, of Mobile, Ala., of counsel), for appellant.
Alex T Howard, of Mobile, Ala., for appellees.
Before WALKER and BATTS, Circuit Judges, and GRUBB, District Judge.
This is an appeal from a final decree in admiralty against the appellant, as claimant of the ship Talus, and in favor of certain seamen for the amount of wages alleged to be due them. The libel was originally filed on behalf of six seamen the court below dismissed the libel as to two, and from its decree in this respect no appeal was taken by them. In favor of the remaining four a decree was rendered for the respective amounts found due them, and from this part of the decree, the appeal was taken by the claimant.
The facts were stipulated in the record, and the appeal presents for decision the proper construction of section 11, in connection with section 4, of the act of Congress approved March 4, 1915 (38 Statutes at Large, 1164, 1185), entitled 'An act to promote the welfare of American seamen in the merchant marine of the United States, to abolish arrest and imprisonment as a penalty for desertion and to secure the abrogation of treaty provisions in relation thereto, and to promote safety at sea. ' The sections involved are those which prohibit the making of certain advances to seamen before the commencement of the voyage for which they ship and which require that half their earned wages be paid, upon arrival of the ship in any port where it receives or delivers cargo, with certain limitations.
The Talus was a British ship, which sailed from the port of Liverpool to Mobile upon the voyage in question. The libelants were British subjects, and the advances, which are questioned, were made to them in Liverpool at the time they were shipped and were valid under the laws of Great Britain. The District Judge disallowed the advances in reckoning the amount due libelants, and it is conceded that, had the advances been taken into account, or if only wages earned by appellants while the ship was in the port of Mobile had been considered, there would have been nothing due libelants at the time of their demand, and that the libel should stand dismissed, and, on the other hand, that if wages earned from the time of sailing from Liverpool are to be considered, and if the advances there made were properly ignored by the District Court, the decree as there rendered should be here affirmed.
Section 4 of the act of March 4, 1915, commonly known as the 'La Follette Act,' is found on page 1165 of volume 38 of the Statutes at Large, and is as follows:
Section 11 of the same is found on page 1168 of the same volume, and the material subdivisions of the section are the following:
The appellants first contend that the decree was erroneous because they contend that section 4 of the act, in providing that the seaman is entitled 'to receive on demand from the master of the vessel to which he belongs one-half part of the wages which he shall have then earned at every port where such vessel, after the voyage has been commenced, shall load or deliver cargo, before the voyage is ended,' only requires the master to pay one-half of the wages earned by the seaman from the time of the arrival of the ship in such a port until the demand. We think the plain purpose of Congress was to allow the seamen the benefit of half his earned wages less payments, upon each occasion upon which the statute permits him to demand them from the commencement of the voyage to the time of demand, and...
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