5 Wend. 564 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1830
By the Court,
It was held in Birkbeck v. The Hoboken Horse Ferry Boat, 17 Johns. R. 54, that the acts in question were not applicable to ferry boats plying across the river from New-York to the opposite
In (he case of The owners of the sloop Rochester v. Walker & McFarlan, 1 Wendell, 557, the acts were held to be applicable to a sloop of 144 tons plying between New-York and Albany; and the court seems to incline to the opinion that they are confined to vessels of a tonnage required by the acts of congress, to take out a license, and actually employed in navigating from one port to another. It never could have been the intention of the legislature to embrace within these acts the innumerable row boats, sail boats, scows and other small craft which crowd our harbors ; they are not within the reason of the law, nor within its terms, as they are ordinarily used. They are not designated as ships or vessels in common parlance; those terms are usually applied to vessels of a larger class; and when all the provisions of these acts are considered, I think we are authorized to say that the legislature used them in that sense in the acts in question.
The court below therefore erred, and the judgment must be reversed.