This is an appeal in admiralty from a decree of the Circuit Court of the United States for the southern district of Ohio. The appellants in this suit were the libellants in the case of Chamberlain et al. v. Ward et al., decided at the present term, and the questions to be determined have respect to the same subject-matter which was in controversy in that case, and come before the court upon the same pleadings and testimony. In that case, Ward et al., as owners of the steamer Atlantic, filed their libel in the District Court against Chamberlain et al., as owners of the propeller Ogdensburgh, to recover the damage sustained by the steamer in a collision which occurred between those vessels on the 20th day of August, 1852, while navigating on the waters of Lake Erie. After the process was served, Chamberlain et al. appeared and filed their answer to the libel. In the answer, after setting up several defences, they alleged, among other things not necessary to be noticed, that the collision was not occasioned by the negligence, inattention, or want of proper care and skill, on the part of the master or crew of the propeller, but wholly through the fault, neglect, and unskilfulness, of the master and crew of the steamer, and set forth the grounds on which those allegations were based, and prayed that their answer to the libel might also be taken as a cross-libel in their behalf against Ward et al., to recover the damage which the propeller sustained by the collision.
On the twenty-sixth day of April, 1853, the parties entered into an agreement, which is a part of this record, that the answer of the respondents should operate as a cross-libel, and that the claims of both parties should be considered by the court in weighing the evidence, and be adjudicated upon in the final decree. Afterwards, at the final hearing in the District Court, on the merits of the case, the libel was dismissed upon the ground that the steamer was wholly in fault; and, under the agreement of the parties that the answer should operate as a cross-libel, a decree was entered in favor of Chamberlain et al., for the amount of the damage occasioned to the propeller. Ward et al., as owners of the Atlantic, appealed to the Circuit Court, where the decree of the District Court dismissing the libel and awarding damages to the propeller, as upon a cross-libel, was in all things reversed. That reversal was made upon the ground that the collision was the result of mutual fault, and that the damages and costs ought to be equally divided. Injuries had been sustained by the propeller to the amount of three thousand dollars, and the agreed value of the steamer at the time of her loss was seventy-five thousand dollars, and accordingly a decree was entered in favor of Ward et al. for the sum of thirty-six thousand dollars, together with a moiety of the costs in both courts. From that decree Chamberlain et al. appealed to this court, and the appeal was regularly docketed, and the case has been heard and decided by the court, upon the libel, answer, and proofs, as exhibited in the transcript. At the same time, Ward et al., the present appellants, also appealed from so much of the decree of the Circuit Court as found the Atlantic in fault, and directed that the damages should be divided. They appealed as respondents in the cross-libel, and under the agreement before referred to, as sanctioned in the District Court, filed a separate copy of the record, and regularly docketed the appeal, as in the case of a cross-libel, the answer in the other record constituting the libel in this case.
