Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/819

 812 .,,,., rSDEIÎAL-IlBPOETER. �Pbndleton and others v. Sieam-Boat Ebuben Potteb. (Special Disiriet Court, D. Bhode Island., 1880.) �1. SAIiVAGE — AWARD — FUND IN KEGISTET, �In Admiralty. �Wm. Skejfield, for libellants. �Knowles, D. J. This is a libel suit for salvage services, in which a decree of condemnation, on default and contu- macy, was entered, October 8, 1879, under which decree the res was sold at public auction, on the twenty-fourth of Octo- ber, for the sum of $7,00. This sum was paid into the regis- try to abide the order of the court, and there it still remains, less the sum of $115.72, beiiig th« marshal's fees, paid to him on his petition, wjth the ^ssent of the libellants, and of ail other persons elaiming an interest in the said fund. �No clairaant orintervenor bas made himself a partyto the suit, but, by arrangement and agreement between the libel-. lants and one Harris Pendletpn, çonceded to have been sole owner of the steamer libelled, he was permitted to appear, and make defence against the allowance to the libellants of aught more than a nominal sum in compensation for their. alleged salvage services. Upon the question thus presented the parties bave been fully heard, with their respective pleas, allegations, and evidence, and the court's judgment and determi- nation thereupon I will proçeed to state. Of the f acts substanti- ated by the evidence submitted by the parties respectively, only a few need be here stated in detail. That evidence shows satis- factorily that the libellants' claim for salvage was well founded — in fact, indisputable; their proceedings throughout having been in consonance with the requirements of l'aw, and the dic- tates of Sound judgment and of nautical skill. It showed, also, that, although the res might bave been, as claimed, worth at least $2,100 when lying moored at Noack on the seven- teenth or eighteenth of August, she brought, at a judicial sale in October, at which both the said Harris Pendleton and the libellants were present, only the said sum of $700. And yet, ����