Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/146

 134 FEDERAL REPORTER. �plaintlfE in a popular action, or a peraon suing for a penalty given by statute to any person suing for the same. �Where a libel was flled against the steam-boat L. to recover pen- alties under Bev. St. } 44G5, and the claimant, — a corporation, — as owner of the boat, defended and flled an answer, which neither ad- mitted nordenied the allegations of the libel as to the number of pas- sengers taken on board in excess of the number allowed in the certificate of inspection, but left the libellant to prove his allegation in that behall, giving as a reason for not answering further that its answer might subject the claimant to a forfeiture or penalty : �Held, on exception to this part of the answer, that admiralty rule SI applied to such a case, and protected the defendant from answer- ing further ; that that rule is to be intcrpieted as carrying into efEect the flftli amendment to the constitution of the United States, which forbids that " any person shall be compellcd in a criminal case to give evidence against himaelf," and the corieaponding rule of the common law, which forbids the compulsory admission of liability to a peouni- ary forfeiture or penalty. �That a corporation is protected under the rnle equally with a nat- ural person, and that the rule applies as well to admissions that may involve a liability for a penalty in the case in which the answer is made, as to admissions that may be used in another case or prosecu- tion against the party answering. �Where the claimant pleaded, in his answer to a libel flled under the Rev. Bt. § 4465 an oral permission to carry additional passengers on excursions, under Rev. St. } 4466, which requires that the permission should be in writing ; �IMd, that this defence could not avail the claimant, and that part of the answer must be striclcea out upon exception as immaterial. �In Admiralty. �Henry G. Atwater, for libellant. �D. McMahon, for claimant. �Choate, D. J. This is a libel to recover penalties under Eev. St. § 4465, for carrying a greater number of passengers than the certificate of inspection permitted. By Eev. St. § 4469, penalties so incurred are made a lien on the vessel. After the filing of the libel the claimants, who are owners of the steam-boat, applied to the secretary of the treasury for a remission of the penalty, and after they had served their answer a warrant of remission was issued, wherein the secre- tary, by the authority given him by Eev. St. 5294, remits to the petitioners, claimants herein, "ail the right, claim, and demand of the United Siatea, and of ail others whatsoever, to the forfeiture of passage money and penalties, on payment of ����