Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/733

 726 FEDBEAIi EEPOBTER. �upon the sea, and to be executed thereon, (making locality the test,) is entirely inadmissible, and that the true criterion is the nature and subject-matter of the contract, as wLether it was a maritime contract, having reference to maritime ser- vice or maritime transactions." �In the case of The A. R. Dunlap, 1 Low. 361, (1869,) Judge Lowell followed, with hesitation, the cases of The Amstel, The Joseph Cunard, and The S. G. Owens, remarking, however, that the reason given that the service was not maritime did not appear to be decisive, because the contracts of other mate- rial men are no more so, and that the reason given that the cargo is a collateral matter, and no part of the necessary equipment of the ship, was also unsatisfactory, because a ship cannot be used to advantage without a cargo. He adhered to the rule, however, in respect to stevedores, while doubtingits correctness, as a point settled by authority. �In the case of the Bark Ilex, 2 Woods, 229, (1876,) Mr. Justice Bradley denied the lien of a stevedore as settled by authority, citing Cox v. Murray and The S. G. Owens^ Referring, doubtless, to the case of The A. R. Dunlap, he says that Judge Lowell thinks the reasons given in Cox v. Murray are not satisfactory ; and referring to Justice Grier's views in The S. G. Owens, he says they are so clear and forcible' "that he is not certain that he should corne to a different conclusion if the question were a new one." But in the case of The Geœge T. Kemp, 2 Low. 482, (1876,) Judge Lowell reconsid- ered his decision in The A. R. Dunlap, and came to the con- clusion that the course of reasoning in the early cases, which he had followed before, had been declared unsound by the highest authority, so that "an adherence to the mere resuit of those cases is not defensible on the ground of stare decisis, because it is standing by the- letter at the expense of the principle." Upon a careful review of the authorities he up- held the stevedore's claim for a lien on the vessel, enforceable in admiralty, as being for a maritime service. �The case of The Ilex is not cited by him. As it was de- cided but a few months earlier it had not probably then been. published. ����