THE HARRISON.- HERBERT, CLAIMANT
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
In a prize case involving the ship Harrison, the Supreme Court held that a claimant must be allowed to assert title to seized property within one year and one day from the institution of prize proceedings, and that such claims cannot be first interposed on appeal but must be filed in the lower court. The Court remanded the case to the circuit court to permit the claim to be filed and to allow amendment of the libel to enable proper adjudication of the captors' condemnation action.
© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Story, J.,
delivered the opinion of the court.
We have considered this question with a view to the general rules of practice. Whenever a prize is brought to adjudication in the admiralty, if, upon the hearing of the cause upon the ship’s papers, and the evidence taken in preparatory, the property appears to belong to enemies, it is immediately condemned. If its national character appear doubtful, or even neutral, and no claim is interposed, the court do not proceed to a final decree, but the cause is postponed, with'a view to enable any person, having title, to assert it, within a reasonable time, before the court. This reasonable time has been, by the general usage of nations, fixed to a year and a day after the institution of the prize proceedings ; and if no claim be interposed within that period, the property is deemed V* be abandoned, and is condemned to the captors for contumacy and default of the supposed owner. In the . present case the prescribed period had not elapsed at the time when the district court proceeded to decree a dismissal of the libél. A claim cannot, by the practice of this court, be for the first time interposed here, in prize causes this court can exercise only an appellate jurisdiction,-and between parties who have litigated in the court below. We are all, therefore, of opinion that this cause ought to be remanded to the circuit court, with directions to allow the claim to be filed in that court; and, also, to allow the libel to be amended so as to conform to the general allegation of prize, and enable the captors to obtain condemnation of the property,, if the asserted claim shall not be sustained, and the property shall not appear entitled to the protection of the Spanish treaty.
Case remanded.a
a
Vide Appendix, note II,
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
The William Bagaley, 5 Wall. 377 (U.S. 1866)
-
The Carlos F. Roses, 177 U.S. 655 (U.S. 1900)…laimed it, nor was it asserted that Gibernau and Company retained the ownership of any part of the cargo after its delivery to the vessel. Property so long unclaimed may be treated as in any view good prize. The Adeline, 9 Cranch, 244; The Harrison, 1 Wheat. 298. In fact, claimants admit that the whole cargo “ was ultimately destined for Don Pedro Pages of Havana.” The bill of exchange drawn by Gibernau and Company named Klein-wort Sons and Company as acceptors, and directed them to charge the amount to the…