THE AMERICAN ADMIRALTY ITS JURISDICTION AND PRACTICE WITH PRACTICAL FORMS AND DIRECTIONS 24079 BY ERASTUS C. BENEDICT, LL.D. "The worst Civil Code would be one which should be intended for all nations FIFTH EDITION REVISED BY GEORGE V. A. McCLOSKEY, A.B., J.D. OF THE NEW YORK BAR AND OF THE BAR OF THE VOLUME 1 ALBANY, N. Y. COPYRIGHT, 1850, 1870, COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY ROBERT D. BENEDICT COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY EDWARD GRENVILLE BENEDICT COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY BANKS & COMPANY CLEANS Printed in U. S. A. PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. The first edition of Benedict's Admiralty appeared in 1850. Its author, Erastus C. Benedict, published a second edition in 1870. His nephew and law partner, Robert Dewey Benedict, published a third edition in 1894. The author's grandnephew, Edward Grenville Benedict, prepared the fourth edition, issued in 1910. At the time when this work was first published, the extent of the constitutional grant to the United States of judicial power in all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction had not been appreciated. One of the reasons for the preparation of the book was the author's belief in the broad jurisdiction of the American admiralty under the constitutional grant, and the author advocated his belief boldly. To-day, the jurisdiction of the admiralty over maritime matters is universally admitted, not only over matters arising on the ocean, but on inland waters, on navigable lakes and streams and on canals, without regard to tides, or currents, or distance from the sea, or size of flotilla, or concurrence of Federal and State jurisdiction, or even whether the vessel is waterborne or not. The chapters reviewing the history of admiralty jurisdiction in other countries, particularly England and the conflict there between the common law courts and the admiralty, and outlining the character of the jurisdiction exercised in the colonial Courts of Vice Admiralty in this country and the establishment of the present system of Federal admiralty practice, have in this edition been transferred to the conclusion of the text as an "Historical Review," inasmuch as these chapters, containing much not elsewhere readily accessible to the general reader, ought not to postpone his consideration of the jurisdiction as now established in America and the current practice. The portion of the work which deals with practice has received in each edition new modifications corresponding to alterations in the law and developments in the decisions. When this work was first issued, the Acts of Congress limiting the liability of ship owners had not been enacted; the Circuit Courts of Appeals were forty years ahead and the Supreme Court had but five years before promulgated the rules of practice for the courts of the United States in admiralty and maritime cases. The promulgation of these rules was the active incentive to the preparation of the book. They have since been amended and in the present edition, to distinguish them from the admiralty rules of the several Districts, are designated the General Admiralty Rules. The publication of the present edition was delayed pending the adoption of uniform rules in admiralty by the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Since the last edition, not only have the rules of court been amended, not only have new statutes been enacted, the Judicial Code in 1911, the Salvage Act in 1912, the Acts relating to the United States Shipping Board and culminating in the Suits in Admiralty Act of 1920, the Death on the High Seas Act of 1920, the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, the Seamen's Act of 1915, since materially amended, and many other enactments which have affected the scope or course of proceedings, but, in addition, the ever increasing mass of decisions has meant an expansion of the subject and has involved an intensive cultivation of many fields within it. Such subjects -not yet exhausted of their possibilities by actual decisions as the relation between the admiralty jurisdiction and the workmen's compensation laws of the States. were not in contemplation when the last edition was brought out. The plan of the work has been enlarged and the text rewritten in order to incorporate the results. of these wide and profound changes. In the last edition the forms were thoroughly revised and in this edition have received further revision and have been considerably increased with a view to enhancing their usefulness. It is not to be understood, however, that the forms must be closely followed, for the United States District Courts in admiralty and the appellate courts as well, though tending toward a greater formality than they once assumed, are still liberal in matters of form. In the preparation of this edition, valuable suggestions were received from Alexander Anderson, Esq., former Admiralty Clerk of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and for the inclusion of certain useful forms acknowledgment is due to Frederick W. Dorr, Esq., of San Francisco, and to Joseph A. Barrett, Esq., and George de Forest Lord, Jr., Esq., of New York City. The editor, as an active practitioner in admiralty, has made avail not only of his. own experience but of the experience of his fellowmembers of the admiralty bar. GEORGE V. A. MCCLOSKEY. New York, January, 1925. |