11 N.Y. 1 | NY | 1873
The counsel for the defendant insists that the courts of this State have no jurisdiction of the cause of action relied upon by the plaintiff. That is, causing the death of the intestate by negligence, while a passenger on its boat, navigating the waters of Lake Champlain between Plattsburgh and Whitehall, receiving and landing passengers and freight at various intermediate ports in this and the State of Vermont, while within this State.
The ground upon which the want of jurisdiction is claimed is, that the injury is a maritime tort, and therefore the case comes within the admiralty, jurisdiction, which under the Constitution and laws of the United States is exclusively vested in the courts of that government. The State courts can exercise no admiralty jurisdiction. (The Josephine, 39 N. Y., 19; Brookman v. Hamill, 43 id., 554.) But conceding that redress for the injury complained of might have been obtained by proceedings in admiralty, it does not follow that the State courts have no jurisdiction. Section 9 of the judiciary act,
Another ground of the motion for a nonsuit was that there was no proof of negligence of the defendant contributing to the death of the deceased. Upon this there was no conflict in the testimony. The proof showed that the boat upon which the deceased took passage had a gangway in the forward part about eight feet in width, with a stanchion in the center, which was covered with rails, about three feet high, which were attached by hinges to the bulwarks of the same height, inclosing the residue of the forward part of the boat; that these rails were swung back, when necessary, for the purpose of receiving and landing passengers and freight, and were when this was done, again placed over the gangway and fastened to the stanchions; that they were so fastened when the deceased fell overboard. That the residue of the forward part of the boat was boarded up three feet high. That the accommodations for passengers were in other parts of the boat, and none in this forward part, though passengers were permitted to and did, sometimes, come out into and stay in this forward part, with the knowledge of the defendant’s
The proof offered that the defendant after the accident boarded up the space, was properly excluded. This was immaterial. Its negligence was to be determined by what was known before and at the time of .the accident.
The nonsuit was properly granted, and the judgment entered thereon must be affirmed.
All concur.
Judgment affirmed.