United States v. Rodgers

• Citation: 14 S.Ct. 109,150 U.S. 249,37 L.Ed. 1071
• Decision Date: 20 November 1893
• Docket Number: No. 30,30
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. RODGERS
• Court: United States Supreme Court

150 U.S. 249

14 S.Ct. 109

37 L.Ed. 1071

UNITED STATES

v RODGERS.

No. 30.

November 20, 1893.

Statement by Mr. Justice FIELD:

In February, 1888, the defendant, Robert S. Rodgers, and others, were indicted in the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Michigan for assaulting, in August, 1887, with a dangerous weapon, one James Downs, on board of the steamer Alaska, a vessel belonging to citizens of the United States, and then being within the admiralty jurisdiction of the United States, and not within the jurisdiction of any particular state of the United States, viz. within the territorial limits of the dominion of Canada.

The indictment contained six counts, charging the offense to have been committed in different ways, or with different intent, and was remitted to the circuit court for the sixth circuit of the eastern district of Michigan. There the defendant, Rodgers, filed a plea to the jurisdiction of the court, alleging that it had no jurisdiction of the matters charged, as appeared on the face of the indictment, and to the plea a demurrer was filed. Upon this demurrer, the judges of the circuit court were divided in opinion, and they have transmitted to this court the following certificate of division:

'Certificate of Division of Opinion.

'United States of America. The Circuit Court of the United States for the Sixth Circuit and Eastern District of Michigan.

'The United States vs. Robert S. Rodgers.

'The defendant in this cause was indicted on the 24th day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, in the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Michigan, together with John Gustave Beyers and others, charged, under section 5346 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, with having made an assault with dangerous weapons upon one James Downs; the assault having taken place on the steamer Alaska, a vessel owned by citizens of the United States, while such vessel was in the Detroit river, out of the jurisdiction of any particular state of the United States, and within the territorial limits of the dominion of Canada, and the said Robert S. Rodgers, and the others indicted with him, having first, after the assault, come into the United States in the eastern district of Michigan.

'On the 20th day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, the defendant, Rodgers, was arrested, and on the same day the indictment was on motion of the United States attorney for the eastern district of Michigan, and by order of the district court for such district, remitted to the circuit court for such district and, with all proceedings theretofore taken, certified to such circuit court.

'On the 23d day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, the defendant, on being called upon to plead in the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Michigan, by permission of the court, pleaded in abatement to the jurisdiction of the court, claiming that, under section 5346 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, the courts of the United States have no jurisdiction of offenses committed in the Detroit river on a vessel of the United States within the territorial limits of the dominion of Canada.

'The United States, by C. P. Black, United States attorney, and Charles T. Wilkins, assistant United States attorney for the eastern district of Michigan, demurred to such plea, and the defendant joined on demurrer.

'The matter of the plea of the jurisdiction coming on to be heard in the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Michigan on the 3d day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, before the circuit and district judges, and the defendant being present in court, the said circuit and district judges were divided in opinion on the question: 'Whether the courts of the United States have jurisdiction, under section 5346 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, to try a person for an assault with a dangerous weapon committed on a vessel belonging to a citizen of the United States, when such vessel is in the Detroit river, out of the jurisdiction of any particular state, and within the territorial limits of the dominion of Canada.'

'And so, at the request of the defendant, and of the United States attorney for this district, the circuit and district judges do hereby, at the same term, state this point upon which they disagree, and hereby direct the same to be certified, under the seal of the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Michigan, to the supreme court of the United States, at its next session, for its opinion thereon.

'Howell E. Jackson, Circuit Judge.

'Henry B. Brown, District Judge.'

Section 5346 of the Revised Statutes, upon which the indictment was found, is as follows:

'Sec. 5346. Every person who, upon the high seas, or in any arm of the sea, or in any river, haven, creek, basin, or bay, within the admiralty jurisdiction of the United States, and out of the jurisdiction of any particular state, on board any vessel belonging in whole or in part to the United States, or any citizen thereof, with a dangerous weapon, or with intent to perpetrate any felony, commits an assault on another shall be punished by a fine of not more than three thousand dollars and by imprisonment at hard labor not more than three years.'

The statute relating to the place of trial in this case is contained in section 730 of the Revised Statutes, which is as follows:

'Sec. 730. The trial of all offenses committed upon the high seas or elsewhere, out of the jurisdiction of any particular state or district, shall be in the district where the offender is found or into which he is first brought.'

Mr. Justice Gray and Mr. Justice Brown dissenting.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Parker, for the United States.

Mr. Justice FIELD, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

Several questions of interest arise upon the construction of section 5346 of the Revised Statutes, upon which the indict- ment in this case was found. The principal one is whether the term 'high seas,' as there used, is applicable to the open, uninclosed waters of the Great Lakes, between which the Detroit river is a connecting stream. The term was formerly used—particularly by writers on public law, and generally in official communications between different governments—to designate the open, uninclosed waters of the ocean, or of the British seas, outside of their ports and havens. At one time it was claimed that the ocean, or portions of it, were subject to the exclusive use of particular nations. The Spaniards, in the sixteenth century, asserted the right to exclude all others from the Pacific ocean. The Portuguese claimed, with the Spaniards, under the grant of Pope Alexander VI., the exclusive use of the Atlantic ocean west and south of a designated line. And the English, in the seventeenth century, claimed the exclusive right to navigate the seas surrounding Great Britain. Wools. Int. Law, $55.

In the discussions which took place in support of and against these extravagant pretensions, the term 'high seas' was applied in the sense stated. It was also used in that sense by English courts and law writers. There was no discussion with them as to the waters of other seas. The public discussions were generally limited to the consideration of the question whether the high seas,—that is, the open, uninclosed seas, as above defined,—or any portion thereof, could be the property or under the exclusive jurisdiction of any nation, or whether they were open and free to the navigation of all nations. The inquiry in the English courts was generally limited to the question whether the jurisdiction of the admiralty extended to the waters of bays and harbors, such extension depending upon the fact whether they constituted a part of the high seas.

In his treatise on the Rights of the Sea, Sir Matthew Hale says: 'The sea is either that which lies within the body of a county, or without. That arm or branch of the sea which lies within the fauces terrae, where a man may reasonably discern between shore and shore, is, or at least may be, within the body of a county, and therefore within the jurisdiction of the sheriff or coroner. That part of the sea which lies not within the body of a county is called the 'main sea' or 'ocean." De Jure Mar. c. 4. By the 'main sea,' Hale here means the same thing expressed by the term 'high sea,'—'mare altum,' or 'le haut meer.'

In Waring v. Clarke, 5 How. 440-452, this court said that it had been frequently adjudicated in the English common-law courts, since the restraining statutes of Richard II. and Henry IV., 'that 'high seas' mean the portion of the sea which washes the open coast.' In U. S. v. Grush, 5 Mason, 290, it was held by Mr. Justice Story, in the United States circuit court, that the term 'high seas,' in its usual sense, expresses the uninclosed ocean, or that portion of the sea which is without the fauces terrae on the seacoast, in contradistinction to that which is surrounded or inclosed between narrow headlands or promontories. It was the open, uninclosed waters of the ocean, or the open, uninclosed waters of the sea, which constituted the 'high seas,' in his judgment. There was no distinction made by him between the ocean and the sea, and there was no occasion for any such distinction. The question in issue was whether the alleged offenses were committed within a county of Massachusetts on the sea coast, or without it, for in the latter case they were committed upon the high seas, and within the statute. It was held that they were committed in the county of Suffolk, and thus were not covered by the statute.

If there were no seas other than the ocean, the term 'high seas' would be limited to the open, uninclosed waters of the...