24 Iowa 192 | Iowa | 1868
The Constitution declares that the judicial power of the United States “ shall extend to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction.” Art; 3, § 2.
The ninth section of the judiciary act of 1789, in establishing the jurisdiction of the several federal courts, provides that the District Courts of the United States “ shall also have exclusive original jurisdiction of all cimil causes of admiralty a/nd ma/riiim.e jurisdiction, includ
In the recent cases of The Moses Taylor (4 Wall. 411) and The Ad Hine (id. 411; S. C., 6 Am. Law Reg. [N. S.] 586; 1 West. Jurist, 231), it is decided by the Supreme Court of the United States that it is competent for congress, under the constitutional provision above quoted, to make the jurisdiction of the federal courts exclusive in admiralty cases. Having declared this proposition, that court further decided that the jurisdiction conferred upon the federal courts by the ninth section of the act of 1789, in civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, is, in express terms, made exclusive, and that this exclusion extends to the State courts.
The point decided in the case of The Ad Hine is, that a collision between steamboats on the interior public navigable rivers of the United States, though the collision occurs above tide water, and infra corpus comitatus, makes a case of admiralty cognizance, when the remedy is by a direct proceeding against the steamboat by name, and not against the owners.
It may be remarked, that our statute (Rev. ch. 148) embraces cases not cognizable in admiralty, and to this extent the statute is not in conflict with the constitutional
The question now recurs, Is the case made by the petition one in which a remedy m rem is given in admiralty? In other words, Could the plaintiff have libeled the defendant for the same injury in the admiralty courts of the United States? If these questions ought to be answered in the affirmative, then it follows, that the jurisdiction of the admiralty court would be exclusive.
If it is essential, under the act of 1789, to the jurisdiction in admiralty of the federal courts, that the stream shall be navigable from the sea by vessels of ten or more tons burden (a point not necessary to discuss), the Missouri river is such a stream.
The boat — defendant in this case — is a steam vessel nav
The present case, as to the jurisdictional question, is precisely like Fretz v. Bull, and Nelson v. Leland, above cited, in both of which it was held by the Supreme Court of the United States, that a case of collision between a steamboat and a flat-boat, on inland navigable rivers, was of admiralty cognizance. See also The S. B. Southern Belle, Newb. Adm. 461; S. C. affirmed on appeal to Supreme Court of the United States, 18 How. 584.
These authorities settle the question, that, for the injury set forth in the petition, the plaintiff might have libeled the boat - defendant in admiralty. If this might- have been done, then the same authorities also settle the question, that the plaintiff cannot pursue a remedy against the boat in rem, under the State laws, and in the State courts. For the Ad Hine case expressly rules, that the remedy adopted by the plaintiff in the present case viz., a suit against the boat by name and a seizure of it, is not a common law remedy, and therefore not one of the remedies saved to suitors by the ninth section of the judiciary act.
It erred in assuming jurisdiction and rendering judgment against the defendant. Elder v. Manuf. Co., 4 Gray, 201; Smith v. Dubuque Co., 1 Iowa, 494; Chapman v. Morgan, 2 Greene, 374; Low v. Rice, 8 Johns. 409; Davis v. Packard, 7 Pet. 281; Dudley v. Mahew, 3 Cow. 9.
Whether a judgment rendered in such a case would be void, if not appealed from, we need not determine. The judgment below is reversed, and an order will be entered in this court dismissing the case.
Reversed.