812
FEDERAL REPORTER,
vol. 46.
and the remainder to be divided among the officers and crew present at rendition of the salvage service, in proportion to their wages. I do not consider the Henry W. Hohen entitled to salvage compensation. She did not arrive until 7 :30 A. M. Then her services were not required. The Uncle Abe had already left, and the Hohen was told that her services were not required. She did afterwards put on a stream, but cannot be held to have rendered any necessary or valuable service. Her libel is therefore dismissed, but without coats.
THE HALF MOON. 1 JO:NES v. THE HALl' MOON. (District Court, E. D. New York. MARITIlm LIENS-ABANDONMENT-AGREEMENT.
June 15,1891.)
J., holding liens on fOLlr lighters owned by R., entered into the following agree ment: "In consideration of the payment of $500, * * * we do hereby agree tc release the said R., and also the lighters C., R., S., and A., from any such claim as we have on the above to date." Thereafter R. paid on account $200. The lighten being afterwards libeled by various lienal's, libelant filed this libel to enforce his that the above agree· lien. On objection by an intervenor, another lienor, ment was in lelral effect an abandonment of libelant's lien.
In Admiralty. Suit to enforce a lien. Alexander &: Ash, for libelants. D. D. McKoon, for mortgagee. BENEDICT, J. This is an action to enforce a lien against the lighter Half Moon for supplies and repairs. The lighter was a foreign vessel, owned in the state of New Jersey. By the statute of the state of New Jersey a lien is given, which continues until the debt is paid. Prior to August, 1888, the libelants Jones and Whitmill bad a lien upon four difterent lighters, owned by one Havens, for different bills, incurred at different times, and amounting in nll to some $700 or $800. On the 8th of August, 1888, Havens and Jones and Whitmill entered into an agreement for the compromise of theso debts, and accordingly Jones and Whitmill signed an agreement to Havens in the following words: "NEW YOItK, August 9,1888. "In consideration of the payment of $500 as follows: $100 in the months of August, September, October. November, lind December,-we do hereby agree to release the said Silas F. Havens, and IIlso the lighters Carrie, Half Moon, Success, and Alert, from any such claim we have on the above to date. [Signed] "GEORGE T. JONES. Witnessed: "THOMAS T. COSTIGAN." lReported by Edward G. Benedict, Esq., of the New York bar.
CHARLES RUNYON.
813
Thereafter Havens paid, on account of this agreemerit, on August 1st, $50; on August 31st, $50; on October 8th, $50; October 10th, $50,making in all, $200. In February, 1890, these lighters were libeled by various lienal'S, and then Jones and Whitmill filed a libel against the Half Moon, and also against the Carrie, to enforce lien for the amount of the repairs done by them, respectively. In this action of Jones and Whitmill one of the said lienal'S appeared to defend, and filed his answer denying that Jones and Whitmill had any lien by reason of the agreement of August 9, 1888, between Jones and Whitmill and Havens, above set forth. The contention of these intervenors is that Jones and Whitmill by that agreement accepted the personal responsibility of Havens for their debts, and waived any lien upon the vessels mentioned therein. The question thus raised for decision is whether the agreement of August 9th, as set forth, was an abandonment of any lien Jones and Whitmill may have then had against the lighter Half Moon. In my opinion, that agreement was, in legal effect, an abandonment of the lien, for the reason that after the execution of the agreement, and certainly after the receipt of $200 on account of that agreement, it became impossible, by reason of the terms of the agreement, to designate any definite sum constituting a subsisting lien upon any particular one of the vessels named. The intention of the parties must have been to look to the personal responsibility of Havens, and not to the Half Moon, for they entered into an agreement which made it impossible thereafter to state any sum for which the lighter Half Moon was liable. This intention is confirmed by the acts of Jones and Whitmill subsequent to the agreement, for, although they made frequent demands upon Havens for payment of the debt after the agreement of 1888, they took no proceeding against the lighters until they were seized in other actions, some two years and eight months after the bill was incurred, and one year and six months after the agreement was signed, and eight months after the lighters had been transferred, with the knowledge of Jones,' to Thomas T. Costigan, who witnessed the execution of the agreement of 1888. There must therefore be a decree dismissing the libel, with costs.
MORSE
v.
THE CHARLES RUNYON.
(Distr£ct Oourt, E. D. New York.
June 19,1891.)
TOWAGE-DtJTY OF TUG TO LEAVE Tow IN SAFB BERTH. A tug left a sound canal-boat at a pier to which the mast,er of the canal-boat objected as unsafe. At low water the canal-boat broke in two. The water was 3J feet deep at the end of the pier. The evidence as to the depth of water at the bows ot the canal-boat was conflicting. HeLd, that the evidence of the soundness of the boat,and the fact that actually broke in two, together with the posit.iVll en
. JRegOl'ted by Edward G. Benedict, Esq., of the New York bar.