This is a libel in admiralty, filed in the district court for the southern district of New York by John N. Cushing and others against John Laird, Jr., to recover damages for the destruction of the libelants' vessel, the Sonora, by the Alabama. The defendant was not found and never appeared in the cause, and his credits and effects were attached in the hands of Foster & Thomson, garnishees.
The garnishees answered that they had in their hands a fund amounting to $31,441.62, known as the proceeds of the steamer Wren, which was the property of Charles K. Prioleau, and not of Laird. Upon the trial of the issue raised by this answer, the district court, in April, 1873, adjudged that the fund belonged to Laird, and ordered the garnishees to pay it into court. See 6 Ben. 408. From that decree the garnishees appealed to the circuit court. The district court afterwards, in September, 1873, entered a decree in favor of the libelants against Laird for the sum of $143,298.70, and costs, 'and that the libelants have execution thereon, to satisfy this decree, against the property of the said respondent, and especially against his property, credits, and effects in the hands of Foster & Thomson, garnishees.' From this decree also the garnishees appealed to the circuit court. The circuit court dismissed the first appeal, and retained the cause for hearing on the second appeal only; and, upon consideration, entered a decree by which it was adjudged that the fund in the hands of the garnishees was not the property of Laird, and could not be subjected to the payment of the decree against him, the attachments against the garnishees were discharged, and both decrees of the district court, so far as affected them and the fund in their hands, were reversed, with costs. See 15 Blatchf. C. C. 219. The findings of fact by the circuit court are printed at length in 15 Blatchf. C. C. 220-236, and, so far as they are material to be stated, are as follows:
The steamer Wren was built at Birkenhead, England, in 1864, by Laird Bros., and was registered on the twenty-fourth of December, 1864, at Liverpool, in accordance with the laws of Great Britain, in the name of John Laird, Jr., as owner; a certificate of the registry was issued in due form; the vessel sailed from Liverpool, having the certificate on board as part of her ship's papers, and it did not appear that she ever again entered a British port. On the third of January, 1865, after she had left Liverpool, Laird executed to Charles K. Prioleau, of Liverpool, a member of the firm of Fraser, Trenholm & Co., for the consideration of £15,450, a bill of sale of the vessel, which, on the first of May, 1865, was duly entered at the custom-house in Liverpool, and the vessel registered in the name of Prioleau as owner. On the thirteenth of June, 1865, on the high seas, on a voyage from Havana to Liverpool, by the way of Halifax, Nova Scotia, some of the crew took forcible possession of the vessel, overcame her officers, ran her into Key West, and there delivered her to the naval authorities of the United States.
On the sixteenth of June, 1865, the attorney of the United States for the southern district of Florida filed in the district court for that district an information against the vessel as prize of war. She was taken into the custody of the marshal, and a monition issued to all persons interested to appear on the twenty-seventh of June and show cause against a decree of condemnation. On the twenty-sixth of June, Edward C. Stiles, master of the vessel, appeared in court and filed a claim, stating that he was the master, and, as such, the lawful bailee of the vessel, and claimed the same for the owner thereof; and that Laird, a British subject, residing the England, was the true and bona fide ower of the vessel, and that no other person was the owner thereof, as appeared by her register in the possession of the court, and as he was informed and believed; denying that she was a prize of war, and praying restitution and damages.
The only certificate of registry found on board was that granted on the twenty-fourth of December, 1864, upon which were noted, at the British consulate in Havana, changes of masters on the twenty-fourth of March and the tenth of June, 1865, and at the foot of which was the following: 'Note. A certificate of the registry granted under the merchant shipping act, 1854, is not a document of title. It does not necessarily contain notice of all changes of ownership, and in no case does it contain an official record of any mortgage affecting the ship.'