Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/897

 DENT V. EADMANN. 889 �the motion of the proetora for Dent, Patterson haa paid into the registry of the court a sum of money equal to the amouat of the debt which Dent claima to have attached in his handa. By thia payment any liability on the part of Patterson to Dent, arising out of the aervice of the attachment upon Pat- terson, was terminated. The controversy, so far as Dent is concemed, -waa then transferred to the fund in court, and when, by an order of the court having the fund, made aa above stated, the fund was impounded upon the prayer of Janssen, and when thereafter, upon the motion of Dent, the Buits of Dent and Janssen were Consolidated, no person but Dent having seen fit to appear in the suit of Janssen after due notice, as prescribed by the order of the court in aoeordanee with the practice of the admiralty in dealing with funds in the registry, the proceeding thereupon became in eSect a sin- gle proceeding in rem, to try the title to the fund in court, as between the two attaching creditors, Dent and Janssen. Such being the character of the present proceeding, it is plain that Patterson's statement in his answer ia, to say the least, not conclusive, aa against Janssen. With more force it might have been contended, although it bas not been contended, that Janssen is concluded by the averment in his libel that he had the right to demand and have of and from the said Bteamship, before her sailing from the port of New York, the difference between the sum agreed to be paid by the charter- party and the amount of freight agreed to be paid by the bill of lading. But when the whole libel is taken together, set- ting forth, as it does, the charter-party at length, I think that it may, perhaps, be considcred that such statement was not intended to be an admission of any f act ; especially as an averment of the fact that such difierence was due before the vessel sailed for New York would be mere surplusage, for the libel of Janssen was filed November 7, 1878, nearly a year after the departure of the steamer. The only liability on the part of the owners of the Blagden to Eadmann, at the time of the service of the attachment in Dent's suit, being, there- fore, for the addresa commission and brokerage, amounting to the Bum of $396.22, the interest of Dent in the fund,cannot ��� �