Ex parte Union Steamboat Company

by Henry Billings Brown

United States Supreme Court

178 U.S. 317

Ex parte Union Steamboat Company

 Argued: May 14, 1900. --- Decided: May 28, 1900

This was a petition for a writ of mandamus to the district court for the eastern district of Michigan, commanding it to set aside a decree entered in the case of The New York, 175 U.S. 187, 44 L. ed. 126, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 67, and enter a decree dividing the damages equally, so that petitioner would not be decreed to pay more than one half the total damages arising out of the collision between the New York and the Conemaugh, with interest thereon not exceeding 5 per cent per annum.

Upon the opinion of this court in the case of the New York being filed, a mandate issued that the decre of the court of appeals be reversed, and the case remanded to the district court, with direction 'to enter a decree in conformity with the opinion of this court, with interest at the same rate per annum that decrees bear in the state of Michigan.' Upon the case coming on to be heard in the district court, the petitioner, the Union Steamboat Company, owner of the propeller New York, submitted a decree to the effect that both vessels were in fault for the collision, and that the damages resulting therefrom be equally divided between the Erie & Western Transportation Company, owner of the Conemaugh, and the Union Steamboat Company, owner of the New York; that such damages amounted in all to the sum of $74,319.49, of which certain intervening underwriters of the cargo were entitled to, and recovered from the steamboat company, $19,841.56; that the transportation company, as trustees for the underwriters and owners of the cargo of the Conemaugh, not intervening, suffered damages in the sum of $19,627.67; that, as owner of the propeller, it had suffered damages in the sum of $30,508.46, aggregating the sum of $50,136.13; that the transportation company recover of the petitioner one half of $50,136.13, less one half the sum of $19,841.56, decreed to be paid to the intervening petitioners, etc.

The court, however, declined to enter this decree; refused to permit the petitioner to recoup any sum that it might pay to the owners or underwriters of the cargo of the Conemaugh, from any sum that was due from the steamboat company for damages sustained by the Conemaugh, so that such company was compelled to pay of the total damages about 76 per cent instead of 50 per cent thereof.

Messrs. C. E. Kremer, F. C. Harvey, H. C. Wisner, and W. O. Johnson for petitioner.

Messrs. F. H. Canfield, Harvey D. Goulder, F. S. Masten, and S. H. Holding for respondent.

Mr. Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the court:

Notes