Shipowners' & Merchants' Tugboat Co. v. Hammond Lumber Co.

(after stating the facts as above). In the court below the motion to dismiss was based on two grounds: (1) That only one claim was made against the tugs; and (2) that the amount thereof was much less than the appraised value of the tugs, and that for those reasons there was no occasion for limitation of liability, and no reason for depriving the claimant of its common-law remedy of trial by jury. On the latter ground the motion was allowed. The decision in White v. Island Transportation Co., 233 U. S. 346 , 34 Sup. Ct. 589, 58 L. Ed. 993 , may be accepted as establishing the rule that the limited liability acts of Congress authorize a proceeding for limitation of liability “whether there be a plurality of claims or only one.”

[ 1 ] But it is urged that the court below erred in holding that both the tugs, being engaged in the same venture, were equally liable, if liable at all, though the Dauntless was the only one directly attached to the raft, and in holding that, since the value of the two tugs greatly exceeded the amount of the claim, there was no occasion for limitation of liability. The appellant, while not contending that the test question in determining whether the value…