Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

47.

COSTS TRAVEL OF WITNESSES.

Traveling expenses of any witness for more than one hundred miles to and from the court or place of taking the testimony shall not be taxed as costs.

48.

ISSUE OF NEW FACTS IN ANSWER.

When the respondent or claimant, in his answer, alleges new facts, these shall be con sidered as denied by the libellant, and no replication or reply, general or special, shall be filed, unless ordered by the court on proper cause shown. But within such time after the answer is filed as shall be fixed by the district court, either by general rule or by special order, the libellant may demand his libel so as to confess and avoid, or explain or add to, the new matters set forth in the answer; and within such time as may be fixed, in like manner, the respondent or claimant shall answer such amendments.

49.

RECORD ON APPEAL.

The clerks of the district courts shall make up the records to be transmitted to the circuit court of appeals.

I. They shall contain the following:

A. The style of the court.

B. The names of the parties, setting forth the original parties, and those who have become parties before the appeal, if any change has taken place.

C. If bail was taken, or property was attached or arrested, the process of the arrest or attachment and the service thereof, all bail and stipulations, and, if any sale has been made, the orders, warrants, and reports relating thereto.

D. The libel, with exhibits annexed thereto.

E. The pleadings of the respondent or claimant, with the exhibits annexed thereto. F. The testimony, as taken on the part of the libellant, and any exhibits not annexed to the libel.

G. The testimony, as taken on the part of the respondent or claimant, and any exhibits not annexed to his pleadings.

H. Any orders and opinions of the court.

with the orders of the If the report was not much of the report as

I. Any report of a commissioner or assessor, if excepted to,
court respecting the same, and the exceptions to the report.
excepted to, only the fact that a reference was made, and so
shows what results were arrived at by the commissioner or assessor are to be stated.
J. The final decree.

K. The notice of or prayer for an appeal, and the assignment of errors.
II. The following shall be omitted:

A. The continuances.

B. All motions, rules, and orders which are merely preparatory for trial, and to which no exception was taken or error assigned.

C. The commissions to take depositions, notices therefor, their captions, and certifi cates of their being sworn to, unless some exception to a deposition in the district court was founded on some one or more of these; in which case so much of either of them as may be involved in the exception shall be set out. In all other cases it shall be sufficient to give the name of the witness, and to copy the interrogatories and answers, and to state the name of the commissioner, and the place where and the date when the deposition was sworn to; and in copying all depositions taken on interrogatories, the answer shall be inserted immediately following the question.

III. The clerk of the district court shall page the copy of the record thus made up, and shall make an index thereto, and he shall certify the entire document at the end thereof under the seal of the court, to be a transcript of the record of the district court in the cause named at the beginning of the copy made up pursuant to this rule.

IV. In making up the record to be transmitted to the circuit court of appeals, the clerk of the district court shall omit therefrom any of the pleadings, testimony, or exhibits which the parties, by their proctors, shall, by written stipulation, agree may be omitted; and shall receive and include in the record any statement of the case which may be signed by the proctors, showing how the questions arose and were decided in the district court, and setting forth so much only of the facts alleged and proved, or sought to be proved, or of the evidence thereof, as is essential to a decision of such question by the appellate court, and such stipulation and statement shall be filed and certified up with the record.

50.

SECURITY ON CROSS LIBEL.

Whenever a cross libel is filed upon any counterclaim arising out of the same contract or cause of action for which the original libel was filed, and the respondent or claimant in the original suit shall have given security to respond in damages, the respondent in the cross libel shall give security in the usual amount and form to respond in damages to the claims set forth in said cross libel, unless the court, for cause shown, shall otherwise direct; and all the proceedings on the original libel shall be stayed until such security be given, unless the court otherwise directs.

51.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY-HOW CLAIMED.

When any ship or vessel shall be libeled, or the owner or owners thereof shall be sued, for any embezzlement, loss, or destruction by the master, officers, mariners, passengers, or any other person or persons, of any property, goods, or merchandise, shipped or put on board of such ship or vessel, or for any loss, damage, or injury by collision, or for any act, matter, or thing, loss, damage, or forfeiture, done, occasioned, or incurred, without the privity or knowledge of such owner or owners, and he or they shall desire to claim the benefit of limitation of liability provided for in the 3d and 4th sections of the Act of March 3, 1851, entitled, "An Act to Limit the Liability of Shipowners and for Other Purposes," now embodied in §§ 4283 to 4285 of the Revised Statutes, as now or hereafter amended or supplemented, the said owner or owners shall and may file a libel or petition in the proper district court of the United States, as hereinafter specified, setting forth the facts and circumstances on which said limitation of liability is claimed, and praying proper relief in that behalf; and thereupon said court, having caused due appraisement to be had of the amount or value of the interest of said owner or owners, respectively, in such ship or vessel, and her freight, for the voyage, shall make an order for the payment of the same into court, or for the giving of a stipulation with sufficient sureties, or an approved corporate surety for the payment thereof into court with interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum from the date of said stipulation and costs, whenever the same shall be ordered; or, if the said owner or owners shall so elect, the said court shall, without such appraisement, make an order for the transfer by him or them of his or their interest in such vessel and freight to a trustee to be appointed by the court under the 4th section of said act; and, upon compliance with such order, the said court shall issue a monition against all persons claiming damages for any such embezzlement, loss, destruction, damage, or injury, citing them to appear before the said court and file their respective claims at or before a certain time, to be named in said writ, not less than thirty days from the issuing of the same; and public notice of such monition shall be given as in other cases, and such further notice served through the post office, or otherwise, as the court, in its discretion, may direct; and the said court shall also, on the application of the said owner or owners, make an order to restrain the further prosecution of all and any suit or suits against said owner or owners in respect to any such claim or claims.

52.

PROOF OF CLAIMS IN LIMITED-LIABILITY PROCEDURE.

Proof of all claims which shall be filed in pursuance of said monition shall thereafter be made before a commissioner to be designated by the court, or before the court, as the court may determine, subject to the right of any person interested to question or controvert the same; and on the completion of said proofs, the commissioner shall make report, or the court its finding on the claims so proven, and on confirmation of said commissioner's report, after hearing any exceptions thereto, or on such finding by the court, the moneys paid or secured to be paid into court as aforesaid, or the proceeds of said ship or vessel and freight (after payment of costs and expense) shall be divided pro rata amongst the several claimants in proportion to the amount of their respective claims, duly proved and confirmed as aforesaid, saving, however, to all parties, any priority to which they may be legally entitled.

53.

DEFENSE TO CLAIMS IN LIMITED-LIABILITY PROCEDURE.

In the proceedings aforesaid, the said owner or owners shall be at liberty to contest his or their liability, or the liability of said ship or vessel for said embezzlement, loss, destruction, damage, or injury (independently of the limitation of liability claimed under said act), provided he, it, or they shall have complied with the requirements of rule 51, and shall also have given a bond for costs, and provided that, in his or their libel or petition, he or they shall state the facts and circumstances by reason of which exemption from liability is claimed; and any person or persons claiming damages as aforesaid, and who shall have filed his or their claim under oath, shall and may answer such libel or petition, and contest the right of the owner or owners of said ship or vessel, either to an exemption from liability, or to a limitation of liability under the said act of Congress, or both, provided such answer shall, in suitable allegations, state the facts and circumstances by reason of which liability is claimed or right to limitation of liability should be denied.

54.

COURTS HAVING COGNIZANCE OF LIMITED-LIABILITY PROCEDURE.

The said libel or petition shall be filed and the said proceedings had in any district court of the United States in which said ship or vessel may be libeled to answer for any such embezzlement, loss, destruction, damage, or injury; or, if the said ship or vessel be not libeled, then in the district court for any district in which the said owner or owners may be sued in that behalf; when the said ship or vessel has not been libeled to answer the matters aforesaid, and suit has not been commenced against the said owner or owners, or has been commenced in a district other than that in which the said ship or vessel may be, the said proceedings may be had in the district court of the district in which the said ship or vessel may be, and where it may be subject to the control of such court for the purposes of the case as hereinbefore provided. If the ship shall have already been libeled or sold, the proceeds shall represent the same for the purposes of these rules.

55.

APPEALS IN LIMITED-LIABILITY CASES.

All the preceding rules and regulations for proceeding in causes where the owner or owners of a ship or vessel shall desire to claim the benefit of limitation of liability provided for in the act of Congress in that behalf shall apply to the circuit courts of appeals of the United States where such cases are or shall be pending in said courts on appeal from the district courts.

56.

RIGHT TO BRING IN PARTY JOINTLY LIABLE.

In any suit, whether in rem or in personam, the claimant or respondent (as the case
may be) shall be entitled to bring in any other vessel or person (individual or corpora-
tion) who may be partly or wholly liable either to the libellant or to such claimant or
respondent by way of remedy over, contribution or otherwise, growing out of the same
matter. This shall be done by petition, on oath, presented before or at the time of
answering the libel, or at any later time during the progress of the cause that the court
may allow. Such petition shall contain suitable allegations showing such liability, and
the particulars thereof, and that such other vessel or person ought to be proceeded
against in the same suit for such damage, and shall pray that process be issued against
such vessel or person to that end. Thereupon such process shall issue, and, if duly
served, such suit shall proceed as if such vessel or person had been originally proceeded
against; the other parties in the suit shall answer the petition; the claimant of such
vessel or such new party shall answer the libel; and such further proceedings shall be
had and decree rendered by the court in the suit as to law and justice shall appertain.
But every such petitioner shall, upon filing his petition, give a stipulation, with suffi-
cient sureties, or an approved corporate surety, to pay the libellant and to any claimant
or any new party brought in by virtue of such process, all such costs, damages, and
expenses as shall be awarded against the petitioner by the court on the final decree,
whether rendered in the original or appellate court; and any such claimant or new party
shall give the same bonds or stipulations which are required in the like cases from
parties brought in under process issued on the prayer of a libellant.

57.

PROPERTY IN CUSTODY OF MARSHAL

No property in the custody of the marshal or other officer of the court shall be deliv
ered up without an order of the court; but, except in possessory actions, such order may
be entered, as of course, by the clerk, on the filing of either a written consent thereto
by the proctor on whose behalf it is detained, or an approved stipulation or bond given
as provided by law and these rules; or upon the dismissal or discontinuance of the
libel; except that, in proceedings under § 941 of the Revised Statutes, the marshal shall
not deliver any property so released until the costs and charges of the officers of the
court shall first have been paid into the court by the party receiving such property sub-
ject to the decision of the court with respect to the amount of costs due such officers.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]
« ForrigeFortsett »