Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/147

 ADMIRALTY 127 jurisdiction of the district courts to 'certain cases upon the lakes and the navigable waters connecting the same." This act did not cover the great rivers which do not connect the lakes, nor did it profess to extend a real admi- ralty jurisdiction even over the waters to which it referred. It created rather a sort of imita- tion jurisdiction, modelled all the way after the real. The act caused more embarrassment than it relieved, and in fact it has been prac- tically annulled by the supreme court by deci- sions which declared subsequent to its enact- ment that the admiralty and maritime jurisdic- tion given by the constitution was not in fact limited to the high seas and tide waters, but, by its own proper force, covered as well the great interior lakes and rivers wherever they were navigable, so that the act of 1845 was un- necessary and inoperative. As to the subject matter, it may be said generally that the American admiralty exercises a jurisdiction based largely upon that of the English court in the time of Edward III., and embraces all maritime causes of action, as well matters of contract as matters of tort, and under the lat- ter covers all injuries and damage done upon the seas, even though done in a port or har- bor or within the body of a county. "With reference to the contracts which are within the reach of the court, the distinction must be first made between those which directly and- of themselves touch maritime affairs, and those which are only preliminary or subordi- nate to such agreements ; for the former the court will pass upon, but it will not upon the latter. Thus a charter party or, as within a year or two it has been decided, a policy of marine insurance is a maritime con- tract which the court will aid in enforcing ; but it has no power in respect to an agreement to make a charter party or a policy. The dis- tinction in these cases is rather obvious and rea- sonable, but it is not so clear as to some other cases. For example, the earlier maritime law, as it was administered in those periods and courts to which our court appeals for tests of jurisdiction, covered all contracts which con- cern the ship, and thus included all contracts for building, repairing, supplying, or equipping her. But as to a contract for building a ship, our supreme court has held that it was not within its jurisdiction. It may be observed, however, that the court in Massachusetts has since decided the contrary, and also that the recent English admiralty court acts expressly confer jurisdiction in such cases upon the court. The court does without hesitation entertain suits by material men for repairing and supply- ing the ship and for towing her, and even claims for shipping a crew and procuring a cargo ; but it has declined to hear actions by stevedores and ship keepers, or claims for ad- vertising the vessel for sea or preparing her car- go for stowage, or for the wages of lightermen, and even claims for scraping the ship's bottom preparatory to coppering her. The jurisdiction also includes what are called possessory and petitory actions respecting a ship that is to say, cases in which the title to possession of the ship is involved, and cases of dispute be- tween part owners as to their interests in the employment of the vessel; contracts of af- freightment, either at the instance of the own- ers for their freight, or of the shippers for dam- ages for the non-fulfilment of the contract of carriage, and also contracts for the carriage of passengers ; cases of jettison and average, bot- tomry and respondentia bonds, and all hypoth- ecations of ship or cargo ; of salvage, collision, surveys, and sales of condemned vessels; de- murrage, pilotage, and wharfage, and seamen's wages and all persons stand on the footing of seamen who serve or are useful in the nav- igation of the ship, including cooks and car- penters, coopers on whaling voyages, and fire- men and engineers and deck hands on steam- boats. The court has also jurisdiction of all assaults and batteries, imprisonment or im- proper treatment of sailors or of passengers, and all other damages and injuries done on the high seas and navigable waters, and also of questions of prize and of seizure under the rev- enue and navigation laws. (See PRIZE.) With respect to the relations of the federal and the state courts, it is now settled, but it was not until very lately, that the jurisdiction of the former in admiralty suits in rem is exclusive, and consequently none of the states can give their local courts power, under statutes, to en- force liens in rem which are of a purely mari- time and admiralty nature. Though the court of admiralty exercises its jurisdiction upon prin- ciples of equity and natural justice, and may ad- minister equitable relief upon a subject which is fairly within its characteristic powers, yet it is not in the ordinary sense a court of equity, and cannot intervene in that class of cases which are peculiarly passed upon in such a court; and though it construes the contracts and obligations of parties before it less strictly than the courts of common law, and will miti- gate the severity of contracts or moderate ex- orbitant demands, yet it will not assume to go further and grant purely equitable relief. Thus it cannot entertain a bill for the specific performance of a contract for the sale of a ship, for the execution of a trust, for the cor- rection of a mistake, or the reformation of an instrument, on that ground, or grant relief against fraud ; and it was even expressly held that it cannot in general order an account- ing between part owners, or aid in cases of mortgage of a ship so as to decree foreclosure, or vest title in the mortgagee upon a sale. The court in its equitable spirit will also disregard technicalities in procedure, and looks at the matter rather than the form, to the- end that the party entitled to it shall receive substantial justice without regard to formal irregularities or defects. In the United States there are no courts which possess an admiralty jurisdiction solely. It is exercised in all cases by the fed-