A petition for a limitation of the liability of the owners of the wrecking schooner Sampson, under the provisions of sections 4282 et seq., Rev. St. U. S. (Act 1851), was filed in this court on April 10, 1895. In accordance with the prayer of the petition, a monition returnable July 16, 1895, citing all persons to appear who had any claims against said vessel, etc., or her owners, was issued; also an order restraining the prosecution of two suits pending in the state court against the owners of the vessel. Thereupon the plaintiffs in these suits filed tlieir claims in this court against said vessel and her owners, and have demurred to the petition, and also entered a motion to dissolve the restraining order. The only real question presented for decision by the demurrer and motion to dissolve is whether this court, having original and exclusive jurisdiction of the limitation of liability proceedings, can enjoin tbe suits in the state court. It is to be observed that the suits in the state court were commenced prior to the institution of the proceedings to limit the liability of the owners.

Section 720, Rev. St., is cited in support of the motion to dissolve. It provides as follows:

This provision, as originally enacted, and contáined in the fifth section of the act of March 2, 1793 ( 1 Stat. 335 ), did not include the exception relative to bankruptcy proceedings; otherwise it is substantially the same. Following the rule of interpretation contained in the maxim, “Expressio unius est exclusio alterius,” the provision would seem to apply to all proceedings other than those specially excepted, and would therefore be applicable to a proceeding to limit the liability of shipowners under the act of 1851, in view of the fact that the only exception specified is that relating to “proceedings in bankruptcy.” But when we come to examine critically the language of the act limiting the liability of shipowners, and the decisions and rules of the supreme court providing a method of procedure, among which the writ of injunction forms an orderly part, and when we consider the plain object and scope of the proceedings, and the benefits to be reached thereby, there will, I think, be little, if any, doubt that section 720 is inapplicable.

In the first place, it has been determined that the limited liability act of 1851 “is nothing more than the old maritime rule, administered in courts of admiralty in all countries except England, from time immemorial; and, if it were not so, the subject-matter itself is one that belongs to the department of maritime law.” Providence, etc., S. S. Co. v. Hill Manuf'g Co., 109 U. S. 578 , 3 Sup. Ct. 379, 617.

In Butler v. Steamship Co., 130 U. S. 555 , 9 Sup. Ct. 612, it was said:

Norwich Co. v. Wright, 13 Wall. 104, 127 ; The Lottawanna, 21 Wall. 558, 577 ; The Scotland, 105 U. S. 24, 29, 31 .

The act of 1851 did not designate the court in which the proceedings to limit the liability of the shipowners should be instituted, nor did it specify any regular method of procedure. When the act was reproduced in the Revised Statutes, in sections 4282 et seq., these deficiencies were not supplied. But the supreme court has settled any question of doubt in that connection, and rendered the act efficient in its workings. In the case of Norwich Co. v. Wright, 13 Wall. 104 , where the act seems to have first come up for consideration before the supreme court, it was held that, although the act did not specify in which court the proceedings to obtain the benefit of the limitation of liability should be instituted, yet that no court is better adapted than a court of admiralty to grant the relief contemplated by the act, and that, therefore, the district courts, as courts of admiralty, had original and exclusive jurisdiction of the proceedings. It is also now well settled that such proceedings in the appropriate district court of the United States supersede all other acts and suits for the same loss or damage in the state or federal courts, upon the matter being properly pleaded therein, and that the effect *735 of swell proceeding in superseding oilier actions and suits does not depend upon the award of an injunction by the district court, but upoii the object and intrinsic character of the proceedings themselves and (he express language of the act of congress. Providence, etc., S. S. Co. v. Hill Manuf’g Co., supra; Butler v. Steamship Co., supra. It is also clear that the act contemplated that there should be but one litigation; that the shipowner should establish his right to a limitation of his liability; and that the claimants for damages should contest such application, and present and litigate their claims against the res or fund, and against the owner thereof, in one and the same suit or proceeding.

As was said in Butler v. Steamship Co., supra:

That there should not be any proceedings in other courts is plain from the provision contained in section 4285, Rev. St. U. S. This section, after providing for a transfer of the interest of the owners in the vessel and freight to a trustee for the benefit of the claimants, reads: “From and after which transfer all claims and proceedings against the owner or owners shall cease.” While the act does not, in terms, provide for the process of injunction, yet it is evident that the supreme court regarded such proceeding as implied and included in the peremptory provision that “all claims and proceedings against the owner or owners shall cease.”

In speaking of the proper course to be pursued to obtain the benefit' of the act, Mr. Justice Bradley, in Norwich Co. v. Wright, supra, said:

These rules were promulgated shortly after (May 6, 1872), and are known as rules 54, 55, 56, and 57 of the general admiralty rules. Rule 54, after providing for the filing of a libel or petition in the proper district court of the United States, and the different methods that may be pursued to place the res or fund within the jurisdiction of the court, and the issuing of a monition against all persons claiming damages, etc., concludes thus:

In Providence, etc., S. S. Óo. v. Hill Manuf’g Co., supra, the right of the supreme court to make rules regulating the procedure in limitation of liability proceedings was reaffirmed; and the importance of providing for a restraining order, although not referred to in express terms, is, nevertheless, plainly manifest from the following quotation of their language. The court say:

In that case the power of the district courts to issue injunctions to stay proceedings in state courts, in view of the provision in the judiciary act of 1793 ( 1 Stat. 335 ) that no injunction should be granted by United States courts “to stay proceedings in any court of a state,” was considered, and it was held that such courts undoubtedly possessed the power. The reasons given for so holding were that the act of 1851 was a statute subsequent to the judiciary act of 1793; and as, in and by its terms, it provided that “all claims and proceedings against the owners shall cease” upon certain preliminary steps required by the act having been complied with, it therefore limited the operation of the provision in the judiciary act to that extent. It is to be observed that the supreme court based its decision upon the provision in the judiciary act as originally enacted, and not as it was amended when reproduced in the Revised Statutes as section 720, with the exception appended relating to bankruptcy proceedings. Though this decision was rendered in 1883, and therefore subsequent to the adoption of the Revised Statutes and the amendment of section 720, still the court expressly limited its interpretation and decision upon the question there raised to the provision as originally enacted, for the reason that the writ in that case had been issued prior to the adoption of the Revised Statutes, and was therefore unaffected by any change in the law introduced in the revision. It, however, referred to the legal effect of the introduction of the exception relating to bankruptcy proceedings in the following words:

But in Re Long Island, etc., Transportation Co., 5 Fed. 599 , the' section, as amended, came up for consideration, and the question in *737 volved in this ease arose there, and was directly passed upon. Judge Choate, of the district court for the Southern district of New York, gave the matter careful investigation, and came to the conclusion that section 720 was limited in its application by what may aptly be termed “the injunction clause” of the limited liability act, viz.: “All claims and proceedings against the owner shall cease.” The reasons upon which the learned judge arrived at that conclusion are so clearly stated that I shall quote from Ms opinion at some length. He says:

See, also, The Amsterdam, 23 Fed. 112 .

In the-case of The Tolchester, 42 Fed. 180 , the right of the district court, after it has in its possession the fund to be distributed, to issue an injunction, was also placed upon the principle adopted by the supreme court in Dietzsch v. Huidekoper, 103 U. S. 494 , and it was said:

The irresistible conclusion, both upon reason and authority, is, therefore, that the provision in section 4285 that “all claims and proceedings against the owner shall cease” is paramount to section 720, and is not affected by it.

It is also urged that the suits in the state court should not be enjoined, because they are personal actions against the owners, charging privity of knowledge. This argument is based upon the provision in the act which, upon proof of personal neglect or privity of knowledge of the tort on the part of the owner, withholds the benefit of a limitation of liability. But this argument fails, for the plain reason that that is precisely one of the questions which the district court is to determine. It is the very proposition which must first be settled in order to decide whether the owners are entitled to a limitation of their liability or not. Mere allegations of personal negligence and privity of knowledge cannot impair the exclusive jurisdiction of the district courts over proceedings to limit the liability of shipowners. Another reason, which is conclusive, is found in the fact that the act does not except, either directly or by implication, personal actions charging the owners with privity of knowledge and personal neglect. Such an exception would most certainly be contrary to the spirit and intent of the act. If allowed, it would effectually frustrate the intention of congress to dis: pose of all claims for damages, and litigate the right of the ship; owner to a limitation of his liability in one and the same proceeding. In many cases the averment of personal negligence and privity of knowledge- on the part of the owners would be a mere subterfuge, to avoid the limitation of liability proceedings.

*739 The same question was raised in lie Long Island, etc., Transportation Co., supra, and it was thus disposed of:

In Butler v. Steamship Co., 130 U. S. 552 , 9 Sup. Ct. 612, the supreme court say:

The demurrer also makes the further objection to the petition, that it does not state fads sufficient to entitle the owners to avail themselves of the benefit of a limitation of liability under the act and its amendments. Hiere is nothing in this last ground of demurrer.

The demurrer will therefore he overruled, and the motion to dissolve the restraining order denied; and it is so ordered.