Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/677

 670 FEDEBAli BBPOBTSB. �ing a suit for possession, were allowable, and that the party ■which, at the final hearing, constituted a majority would be adjudged such by the court's decree. �Why the libellants in such a case should be restricted in this particular, and the libellees not, I fail to find any snfiQ- cient reason. This cause, it is to be remembered, is heard ia admiralty — under Admiralty Eule No. 24 — not in a court of common law. �2. It was shown by the evidence that in December, 1879, a certain instrument, under seal, was signed by the holders of twenty-one thirty- seconds of the brig, in view of which it ■was contended that each signer thereof was estopped from assigning or transferring his share without "consulting" with the ship's husband therein named; it being further con- tended that, inasmuch as some of the libellants were signers of this paper, and had, by becoming co-libellants in this suit, violated their covenant, they should not be reeognized as share-holders in the inquiry as to the relative number of libel- lants and libellees. They cannot, it is contended, be treated as parties coming into court with clean bands. And, further etill, it was contended that the instrument should be con- strued and held by the court to be "a valid written agree- ment subsisting, by virtue of which the master was entitled to possession," within the purview of section 4250 of the Ee- vised Statutes. Of this contention of the libellees it sufiSces to say that in their view of this instrument, and of its sig- nificance and weight, I cannot concur, and of course must overrule the objection. �3. It was shown by the evidence that, on the twenty-first of May, a charter-party was executed by the master (said Lowry) and the brig's husband on the one part, and one Leydon & Co. on the other, in virtue of which the msister and owners of the brig were bound to so manage that the brig should be at Maehias, Maine, on the fifth of June, ready to load, and that on the day of the seizure, (May 28th,) and four hours before the seizure, a clearance for Maehias had been procured from the custom-house officiais in Providence; and in view of these facts it was denied, on behalf of the ����