789
FEDERAL REPORTER.
angle irons In defendants' frame are the equivalent of complainants' standards, I am olthe opinion that in view of the limitations to be necessarily on the complainant's patent because of the state of the art when Farnham made his invention, the absence of inclined end bars in the defendants' bed bottom, in connection with the other differences between it and the complainant's frame just spoken of, relieves the defendants from the charge of infringement. In con,::lingto this di::termination, I rely upon the proofs before me that the defendants have not constructed, and do not construct, their frames with inclined end rails; and it will be understood by the parties that 'a different conclusion entirely might result, if I were not satisfied from the proofs that the slight inclination now apparent in the exhibit in evidence is not attributable to original construction, but to the causes before stated. Decree, for defendants.
TBE CANA.DA.. (Di8triet Oourt, D. Oregon.
May 12,1881.)
1.
CONSTRUCTION OF STATE, STATUTE.
It does not appear the N ewYork court of appeals have decided (39 N. Y.19; 43 N. Y. 554; 59 N. Y. 5!i4; or 71 N. Y. 413) that so much of the act of April 24, 1862, as gives a material man a lien upon a vessel for supplies furnished in her home port is void because in conflict with the grant of admiralty jurisdiction to the United States and if it did, this court is not bound to follow it, because the question as to its validity arises under the constitution of the United States, and not the state, and is therefore a federal one. 2. LIEN OF MATERIAL
MAN AND' MORTGAGEE. When the local law gives a,lien' for supplies furnished to a vessel in her home port, and provides that such licn shall be preferred to that of a mortgagee, a court of admiralty will enforce it accordingly: and such 1ien will be so enforced by a court of admiralty when the local law is silent on the subject; upon the grounds: (1) That the lien of a maritime contract, whether it arises under the local law or the >llaritime law, is practically a maritime lien, and entitled to rank
THE O!NADA,
731
accordingly and be preferred to that of a-mortgage; (2) that a mortgagor in possession is the agent of the mortgagee in obtaining plies for the vessel, and the lien. given therefor binds the interest of the latter as well as the former. . 3. REGISTRATION 011' MOR'l'GAGB.
Section 4192 of the Revised Statutes, providing for the registration of mortgages of vessels, does not change the nature or operation of the lien of such mortgage, but only provides that without such registration it shall not be valid; and therefore a state law preferrin.g the lien of a domestic material man to that ofa mortgage is not in conflict with such section.
In Admiralty. W. B. Gilbert, for libellants. Charles Woodward, John H. Woodward, and John W. Whalley, for claimants. _ DEADY, D. J. On April 2, 1881, the libellants, William Whitlock and another, constituting the firm of Whitlock & Slover, of New York, intervening for their interest, filed a libel against the Canada to enforce a claim of $676.70 for supplies furnished said vessel in her home port-the city of New York-in which they allege that said supplies were furnished in January and February, 1880, at the request of the owner and upon the credit of the vessel, and were necessary to enable her to proceed upon her contemplated voyage; that the vessel left said port on her voyage on March 6th, .and thereafter the libellants, in. pursuance of the act of the legislature of New York of April 24, 1862, duly filed a specincation of their claim and lien against said vessel, which has not been satisfied, though duly demanded. The claimants, Effingham B. Sutton and others, except to the libel, because it appears that said supplies were furnished at the vessel's home port upon the request of the owner, and therefore the libellants have no lien therefor by the maritime law or by the law of New York, which can be enforced without the jurisdiction of that state. Since the intervention of these libellants the vessel has been sold upon the order of the court and the proceeds paid out to the original libellants, Thomas F. Neill and others, and other intervenors, until there is not sufficient left in the 1'egistry of the court to satisfy the mortgage.
782
Upon the argument it was also contended by counsel for the claimants that the New York lien act had been declared unconstitutional and void by the courts of that state, and therefore the libellants could acquire no rights under it; citing The Josephine, 39 N. Y. 19; Brookman v. Hamill, 43 N. Y. 554; Poole v. Kermit, 59 N. Y. 554; King v. Greenway, 71 N. Y. 413. But, notwithstanding some loose and ambiguous language in the opinions in these cases, implying the unconstitutionality of the act as a whole, it is certain that nothing was decided in any of them but that so much of the act as gave persons having a lien under it a remedy in the state court by a proceeding in rem against the vessel, to enforce such liens, was void, upon the ground that the contract in such cases was maritime, and therefore exclusively of admiralty cognizance, except so far as the common law could give a remedy; and that it could not do by process ,in rem. These decisions were made in obedience to the authority of the then recently-decided cases, in the supreme comt, of The Moses Taylor, 4 Wall. 411, and The Hine, ld. 556. The validity of the provisions of the act giving the lien, and providing for its registration and effect, were not before the court, or passed upon by it; and such seems to have been the opinion of the circuit court in The John Farron, (8. D. N. Y.) in which Johnson,J., speaking of the decisions of the New York court in 39 and 43 N. Y. supra, says: "The state lien law was held to' he unconstitutional, because it attempted to give process in rom, and thus was held to invade the grant of admiralty jurisdiction to the United States. The adjudication did not g(} beyond the validity of the proceeding in rem, and therefore the provision for the lien in the specified cases remains to be enforced, When the contract is maritime, in the courts of the admiralty." 14 BIatchf. 26.
That is this case exactly. The contract to furnish supplies to the Canada was a maritime one, and the lien given by the law of New York to secure its performance may be enforced in the admiralty as an incident, or part of it, wherever the vessel is found. De Lovio v. Boit, 2 Mass. 474; The Harrison, 1 Sawy. 853. It has been held by the supreme court that, until congress legislates upon the subject, the state may provide a lien for
THB CANADA.
788
material men for necessaries furnished to a vessel in her home port. And the lien thus created is declared tobe""a right of property and not a mere matter of procedure," which may be enforced in the admiralty, under rule 12, as a lien given by the general maritime law. The Lottawana, 21 Wall. 579. And even conceding that the court of New York has decided this state law to be void, it does not follow that this court must be governed by such decision. It is admitted that the national courts are bound, as a rule, to follow· the decisions of the state courts in construing its statutes or determining their validity as compared with its organic law. But this is a case where the question of the validity of the state statute arises under the constitution and laws of the United States. The question is, therefore, a federal one, upon which the state court takes the law from the national one, and not the latter from the former. There is no doubt, then, either upon reason or authority, that the libellants have a lien for their claim which may be enforced in this court as a right pertaining to a maritime contract by virtue of the local law. The claimants next contend that if the libellants have a lien, it must be deferred to the lien of their mortgage, the registration of which is prior in point of time to that of the lien; and that, if this should be held otherwise, still the lien of the mortgage. outranks that for the supplies, because it arises under a law of this forum......the law of the United States providing for the registration of the mortgage, while the other arises under the law of another and foreign forum -the state of New York. In support of the first proposition, counsel cite Scott'. Case, 1 Abb. (U. S.) 336 ; The Kate Henchman, 7 Biss. 238 ; The Grace Greenwood, 2 Biss. 131; The Bradish Johnson, 3 Woods, 582 j Aldrich v. .tEtna, 8 Wall. 491; and section 4192, Rev. St. (9 St. 440,) which declaresThat no bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance "of any United States vessel shall be valid against any person other than the grantor or mortgagor, his heirs and devisees, and persons having actual notIce theleof," unless the" same is recorded in the office of the collector of where such vessel is registered and enrolled:" pJ'ovided, that
FEDERALREPORTEB·
·
or ,be in any way affected by theproyisions of this section.
lien for bottomry on any'vessel
At
shall not lose its priority II
The cases cited from Bissell, Abbott, and Woods appear to have been decided upon the ·assumption that the lien or operation of the mortgage is in some way created by or derived from the act of congress, and therefore it is superior to that of the material man. The act has been twice before the supreme court for consideration, (White's Bank v. Smith, 7 Wall. 646; Aldrich v· .lEtna, 8 Wall. 491,) and the point there decided, so far as it can be gathered from the opinions of Mr. Justice Nelson, is that, the statute having provided' a uniform registration for instruments affecting the ownership of vessels, and declared them invalid, with certain exceptions, unless so registered, by implication it excludes all further state legislation from the subject; as that they should be also registered or filed in the county clerk's office and refiled at the end of a year, or that they should be void unless accompanied by possession. Beyond this these cases do not go, and there is no warrant in them for the doctrine. that the mortgage is called into existence by the act of congress, or that its lien or operation is in any way preferred or enlarged by it. On the contrary, it existed and was used as a means of pledging or transferring the property in a vessel under and by virtue of the generallaw of the state, before the act of congress was passed. Hince then, in addition to the formalities prescribed by the state law for its execution it must be registered in the proper collector's office, but when that is done its effect and rank as a lien still depend upon the state law. The registration under the act of congress is simply necessary to make it operative as to third persons without Ilotice of its contents. So far, then, as I am able to discern, there is nothing in the language or purpose of the act of congress from which it can be inferred that it was the intention to prefer the lien of the mortgagee to that of a material man or any other. As was said in this court in The Favorite, 3 Sawy. 409: "There is nothing in the lapguage of the section [4192, Rev. St.] that indicates an. intention to enlarge the operation of a
'THE' OANADA.
786
decision of Wallace, D. J., that it is, said of section 4192,Rev. St., and the proviso thereto, concerning the lien bottomry: " The obvious purpose of this proviso was to make it entirely clear that a bottomry bond did not come within the statute requiring certain instruments to be recorded. It might otherwise have been contended that it was In some sense a hypothecatio,n the vessel, and therefore required to be recorded. It will be observed that the pr6viso is confined to liens by bottomry. If this proviso be construed to mean that such a lien is only and. that all otlJ.er liens are postponed out of the purview of the to that of a mortgagee, then the claims of salvors, and all those having other strictly maritime liens, would be thus postponed, to the subversion of the whole principle upon which efficacy is given. to such claims; and the overthrow of the best-settled and most salutl1ry principles of the maritime law. Indeed, any principle upon which this statute can be expounded to give such priority to a recorded mortgage, would also exiend to bills of sale and otherconveyances,recotded under the same law, and practically overthrow the whole scheme of ,the maritime law upon the subject of maritime liens. This statute, I conclude, therefore, has no relation to the question involved; anu the lien of the libellant is left to stand upon the statute of New York; which the: courts of the United States do enforce in the courts Qf admiralty."
of
In conclusion, this is a controversy betWElEm two parties claiming liens upon the "\Tessel under the 'law of New York, which declares that the lien of the material man sha'll' be preferred, and therefore it is entitled to be first eatisfied out of the proceeds; and also that the lien oUhe material ma.n, although given by the local law, is given' to secure the per. formance of a maritime contract, and ispracticallya'mari. time lien, and should, therefore, take rank with 'it, and be preferred to a mortgage. The William T. Gra'ves, supra, 192; The General Burnside, 3 F;ED. REF.' 232. The claim.of the must be first paid in full, with interest and costs,-$684.52,-and the remainder of the proceeds-$1,680.63-delivered to the claimant.
((JirettlC 001tll't, D. It1fl4, --,1881.) L USURy-AGENCY.
If an agent, in good faith, makes a loan for another and without the knowledge or authority of his principal, the agent's own beneftt exacts more than legal interest, the loan is n<,lt thereby rendered usurious. '
I. BAME-R.JtlgW.u.-BONA FmB AssIGNBB. Where an usurious obligation is passed for value to an lJinocen' purchaser without notice of the usury, who afterwards· takes. a new and substitute security for the debt; there being no taint of usury in the second transaction, the plea of usury to the SUbstituted obligation cannot be sustained. ' .. CABB 8'rATBD.
In Equity. This is a suit to foreclose a mortgage. .Theonly def.ence usury. The note secured by the mortgage was for the sum T.7,no.8-47