Briggs v. A Light Boat
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Petition, dated August 5,1863, for the enforcement of a lien • upon a vessel. The United States appeared as claimants, and filed a plea to the jurisdiction, which was overruled, and thereupon filed an answer, insisting among other things that the vessel was the public property of the United States, arid not subject to this process.
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Petition, dated August 5,1863, for the enforcement of a lien • upon a vessel. The United States appeared as claimants, and filed a plea to the jurisdiction, which was overruled, and thereupon filed an answer, insisting among other things that the vessel was the public property of the United States, arid not subject to this process. At the trial in the superior court, before Ames, J., it appeared that by an oral contract, made at Norton, the petitioners agreed with Stephen Andrews to furnish timber for three light boats which he was building at New Bedford for the United States that the timber…
1Opinion of the CourtBigelow, C. J.
Upon established principles of law, we think it clear that no property in the vessel, which is the subject of controversy in this action, vested in the United States until the vessel was completed and delivered, in pursuance of the contract with the builder. The general rule of law is well settled and familiar, that, under a contract for building a ship or making any other chattel, not subsisting in specie at the time of the contract, no property vests in the purchaser during the progress of the work, nor until the vessel or other chattel is finished and ready for delivery. To this rule there…
2Cited by3 opinions
- Verco Industries v. United States (In Re Verco Industries)United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit · 1982
- Diamond Glass Co. v. LadwigSuperior Court of Pennsylvania · 1907
- State v. National Surety Co.Idaho Supreme Court · 1916