The Hermon
District Court, D. Massachusetts
The libellants demanded a' balance of their contract wages for the voyage from Baltimore to Acapulco, thence to Callao, the Chin-cha Islands, Gibraltar, and Valencia; two months’ wages for their discharge at Valencia, and a very large sum for alleged short allowance of bread and meat during a considerable part of the fifteen months of the voyage.
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The libellants demanded a' balance of their contract wages for the voyage from Baltimore to Acapulco, thence to Callao, the Chin-cha Islands, Gibraltar, and Valencia; two months’ wages for their discharge at Valencia, and a very large sum for alleged short allowance of bread and meat during a considerable part of the fifteen months of the voyage. The answer averred that the men were paid in full at Valencia, and that each signed a receipt which was read by or to him and understood; that they afterwards deserted the ship, and so forfeited the two months’ wages; that, although there was short…
1Opinion of the Court
LOWELL, District Judge.
The next question is whether the men were entitled to two months’ extra wages. It is said that the statutes of 1803 [2 Stat. 203], 1840 [5 Stat. 394], and 1856 [11 Stat. 52], taken together, admit of no other construction than that men who are discharged in a foreign port must have the statute compensation, even though the voyage, by its terms, ends in that port, unless the consul remits the payment in certain contingencies. This is a point of some nicety. The ninth clause of the act of 1840 gives the consul power to remit the extra pay if the seamen insist on their…
2Cited by3 opinions
- Petersen v. J. F. Cunningham Co.District Court, N.D. California · 1896
- Broux v. The IvyDistrict Court, D. Delaware · 1894
- Gove v. JudsonDistrict Court, S.D. New York · 1884