IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, FOR THE PENNSYLVANIA DISTRICT, BY THE HON. RICHARD PETERS, COMPRISING ALSO SOME DECISIONS IN THE SAME COURT, BY THE LATE FRANCIS HOPKINSON, ESQ. TO WHICH ARE ADDED CASES DETERMINED IN OTHER DISTRICTS CONTAINING OF THE UNITED STATES. With an Appendix, THE LAWS OF OLERON. THE LAWS OF WISBUY.-THE LAWS OF THE HANSE TOWNS. THE MARINE ORDINANCES OF LOUIS XIV-A TREATISE ON THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF OWNERS, FREIGHTERS, AND MASTERS OF SHIPS, AND OF MARINERS: AND THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES RELATIVE TO MARINERS. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM P. FARRAND. ROBERT CARR, PRINTER. District of Pennsylvania: to wit. Be it remembered, That on the eighth day of July, in the thirty-second Year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1807, William P. Farrand of the said District, hath deposited in this Office, the Title of a Book, the Right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the words following, to wit: "Admiralty Decisions in the District Court of the United States, for the "Pennsylvania District, by the Hon. Richard Peters: comprising also "some Decisions in the same Court, by the late Francis Hopkinson, esq. "To which are added Cases determined in other Districts of the United "States. With an Appendix, containing-The Laws of Oleron.-The "Laws of Wisbuy.The Laws of the Hanse Towns.-The Marine “ Ordinances of Louis XÏV.—A Treatise on the Rights and Duties of "Owners, Freighters, and Masters of Ships, and of Mariners: and, The "Laws of the United States relative to Mariners. In Two Volumes. "Vol. I." In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intituled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned," and also, to the Act, entitled “An Act supplementary to Act, entitled "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the Benefits thereof to the Arts of designing, engraving and etching historical, and other Prints." (L. S.) D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania. LIBRARY OF THE LELAND STAUFGRB, JR., UNIVERSITY LAN GEPARTMENT. PREFACE. THE following Cases are considered worthy of publication as additions to the limited stock of knowledge, on the important subjects of them, to be found in the library of the lawyer. The decisions in the District Court of Pennsylvania, will, it is hoped, be highly useful to the Bar, and to the members of the commercial community. In a court of extensive and multifarious business, many cases of the same kind have been decided; but the Editor has included none in this work, save those which are considered necessary to establish, impress, or elucidate general principles. Many of the cases are taken from the records of the court, and others are copied verbatim from the judge's notes, to which he has added annotations. Originally intended only to refresh his memory, and to preserve uniformity of decision, and not for publication, in these notes the names of the counsel engaged in the causes, as well as many of the authorities on which part of the decisions are founded, and the periods when they were given, have been omitted; but every cir cumstance necessary in the statement of each case is detailed with careful attention. Although the omission of the authorities which were cited in the different cases, is a circumstance to be regretted, yet it will require no great labour to trace the principles which are decided in them to the most respectable writers wherever the cases are not new, and the de terminations necessarily grounded on the best opinion their circumstances appeared to warrant. The Decisions are confined to the admiralty side of the court with a few exceptions. Those in the exchequer or revenue, criminal and common law sides are omitted, as not comprised in the objects, of this publication. The cases of salvage and mariners' contracts will be found particularly useful as containing more extended views of the principles which regulate and expound them, than will be found in any work in our possession. To the counsel who practice in the court they are essentially necessary, as they are the established law of the court, and will so continue until altered on appeal. From some of them, and the most important, appeals have been entered, and the decrees appealed from have been confirmed by the superior court. The greater part of the others have been acquiesced in through a course of fifteen years, during which the present district judge has presided in the court. To merchants they will be useful guides to conduct them in many intricate, and too often vexatious, parts of their daily business and general affairs. From them they will receive information on points which have been passed over in silence by the laws of the United States for the regulation of seamen, and which consequently have been left for their determination to the usages of commercial nations, and to the principles of general maritime law. Inferior magistrates, in whom, in the absence of the district judge, authority by the laws of the United States is vested, to examine into the complaints of seamen, will find in this selection the |