Accretion by alluvion upon a street reduced by a lake boundary to less
than half its regular width, belongs to the original proprietor of the
lot, in whom, subject to the public easement, the fee of the half next
the lake remains. Banks v. Ogden, 57.
RIGHT TO COMMENCE ASSUMPSIT.
Where the purchaser of a claim for a patent agrees that, as soon as the
patent is issued, he will give his notes, payable at a future date, the
fact that no patent has issued until after the day when the last note,
if given, would have been payable, is no defence to assumpsit for not
having given the notes; the patent having finally issued in form.
Real v. Bowman, 591.
ADMIRALTY.
I. JURISDICTION.
1. Property captured on land by the officers and crews of a naval force of
the United States, is not "maritime prize;" even though, like cot-
ton, it may have been a proper subject of capture generally, as an
element of strength to the enemy. Mrs. Alexander's Cotton, 404.
2. A libel in prize need not allege for what cause a vessel has been seized,
or has become prize of war; as, ex. gr., whether for an attempted
breach of blockade or as enemy property. It is enough if it allege
the capture generally as prize of war. The Andromeda, 481.
3. Libels in rem may be prosecuted in any district of the United States
where the property is found. The Slavers (Reindeer), 384.
4. Stipulators in admiralty, who have entered into stipulations to procure
the discharge of a vessel attached under a libel for collision, cannot
be made liable for more than the amount assumed in their stipulation
as the amount which the offending vessel is worth, with costs as
stipulated for. The Ann Caroline, 538.
5. The ordinary and settled rule of navigation, that when two vessels are
approaching each other on opposite tacks, both having the wind free,
the one on the larboard side shall give way and pass to the right, is
subject to modification when one is to the windward of the other,
and ahead of or above her in a narrow channel, so that an observance
of it might probably produce a collision. Ib.
6. The true damage incurred by a party whose vessel has been sunk by
collision being the value of his vessel, that sum (without interest)
was given in a proceeding in rem, where the value of the offending
vessel was fixed in stipulations that had been entered into to procure
her discharge at that identical sum. Ib.
7. As a general rule, there is no obligation on a sailing vessel proceeding
on her voyage to shorten sail or lie to because the night is so dark
that an approaching vessel cannot be seen. The Morning Light, 550.
8. A collision resulting from the darkness of the night, and without the
fault of either party, is an "inevitable accident." Ib.
Where parties enter upon land and take possession without title or claim
or color of title, such occupation is subservient to the paramount
title, not adverse to it. Harvey ▼. Tyler, 828.
AGENCY. See Bank Deposit.
Accretion by alluvion upon a street reduced by a lake boundary to less
than half its regular width, belongs to the original proprietor of the
lot; in whom, subject to the public easement, the fee of the half next
the lake remains. Banks v. Ogden, 57.
APPEALS. See Jurisdiction, 2, 3, 8, 9; Practice, 1, 2, 7.
Appeals from decrees in cases of California surveys, in the name of the
United States, acting for intervenors, under the act of June 14, 1860,
commonly called the Survey Act, discouraged as being liable to
abuse; since, on the one hand, the party wronged by the appeal gets
no costs from the Government; while, on the other, the Government
is made to pay the expenses of a suit promoted under its name by
persons who may be litigious intervenors merely. United States v. Bil-
ling, 444.
It is the duty of assignees for the benefit of creditors, who have once
accepted the trust, not only to appear, but so far as the nature of the
transaction, and the facts and circumstances of the case will admit or
warrant, to defend the suit. And if a Federal court is already seized
of the question of the validity of the trust, they should set up such
pending proceeding against any attempt by parties in a State court to
bring a decision of the case within its cognizance. If, when the
Federal court has acquired previous jurisdiction, they submit with a
mere appearance, and without any opposition to the jurisdiction of
the State court, and pass over to a receiver appointed by it the assets
of the trust, they will be held personally liable for them all in the
Federal court. Chittenden et al. v. Brewster, 191.
Money collected by one bank for another, placed by the collecting bank
with the bulk of its ordinary banking funds, and credited to the
transmitting bank in account, becomes the money of the former.
Hence, any depreciation in the specific bank bills received by the coi-
lecting bank, which may happen between the date of the collecting
bank's receiving them and the other bank's drawing for the amount
collected, falls upon the former. Marine Bank v. Fulton Bank, 252.
The limitation of the eighth section of the bankrupt act of 1841 does not
apply to suits by assignees or their grantees for the recovery of real
estate until after two years from the taking of adverse possession.
Banks v. Ogden, 58.
BLOCKADE. See Rebellion, 5.
I. MAINTENANCE OF.
1. A blockade may be made effectual by batteries on shore as well as by
ships afloat; and, in case of an inland port, may be maintained by
batteries commanding the river or inlet by which it may be ap-
proached, supported by a naval force sufficient to warn off innocent,
and capture offending vessels attempting to enter. The Circassian,
2. The occupation of a city by a blockading belligerent does not termi-
nate a public blockade of it previously existing; the city itself being
hostile, the opposing enemy in the neighborhood, and the occupation
limited, recent, and subject to the vicissitudes of war. Still less does
it terminate a blockade proclaimed and maintained not only against
that city, but against the port and district commercially dependent
upon it and blockaded by its blockade. Ib.; S. P. The Baigorry, 474.
8 A public blockade, that is to say, a blockade regularly notified to neu-
tral governments, and as such distinguished from a simple blockade,
or such as may be established by a naval officer acting on his own
discretion, or under direction of his superiors, must, in the absence
of clear proof of a discontinuance of it, be presumed to continue
until notification is given by the blockading government of such dis-
continuance. The Circassian, 135.
4. The fact that the master and mate saw, as they swear, no blockading
ships off the port where their vessel was loaded, and from which she
sailed, is not enough to show that such a blockade has been discon-
tinued. The Baigorry, 474.
5. Nor will continual entries in the log-book, supported by testimony of
officers of the vessel seized, that the weather being clear, no blockading
vessels were to be seen off the port from which the vessels sailed
The Andromeda, 481.
BLOCKADE (continued).
III. INTENT TO VIOLATE.
S. Intent to violate a blockade may be collected from bills of lading of
cargo, from letters and-papers found on board the captured vessel,
from acts and words of the owners or hirers of the vessel and the
shippers of the cargo and their agents, and from the spoliation of
papers in apprehension of capture. The Circassian, 135.
7. Or it may be inferred in part from delay of the vessel to sail after being
completely laden; and from changing the ship's course in order to
escape a ship-of-war cruising for blockade-runners. The Baigorry, 474.
8. A vessel and cargo, even when perhaps owned by neutrals, may be
condemned as enemy property, because of the employment of the
vessel in enemy trade, and because of an attempt to violate a blockade,
and to elude visitation and search. Ib.
9. A vessel sailing from a neutral port with intent to violate a blockade
is liable to capture and condemnation as prize from the time of sail-
ing; and the intent to violate the blockade is not disproved by evi-
dence of a purpose to call at another neutral port, not reached at time
of capture, with ulterior destination to the blockaded pórt. The
Circassian, 135.
When the title-papers designate the beginning-place of a straight line,
and fix its course by requiring that it shall pass a known and ascer-
tained point to its termination at a mountain, such line cannot be
varied by the fact that a rough draft (a Mexican diseño) on which it
is drawn was not true at all to scale, and that on it the line strikes
two ranges of mountains in such a way as to leave certain unnamed
elevations on the draft, which, with more or less plausibility, it was
conjectured, but only conjectured, were meant to represent certain
peaks in nature well known, more to the east or west than by refer-
ence to other objects on the draft they in nature held. The Fossat
Case, 649.
CALIFORNIA.
I. PILOT LAW OF.
1. The act of the State of California of May 20, 1861, entitled “An Act
to establish Pilots and Pilot Regulations for the Port of San Fran-
cisco," is not in conflict with the act of Congress of August 30, 1852,
"To amend an act, entitled 'An Act to Provide for the better Secu-
rity of the Lives of Passengers on board of Vessels propelled in whole
or in part by Steam.'" Steamship Company v. Joliffe, 450.
IL. ACT OF CONGRESS OF 3D MARCH, 1851.
2. If a California land claim has been confirmed by a decree of the Dis-
trict Court under the act of 3d of March, 1851 (9 Statutes at Large,
631), and the decree of confirmation fixing the boundaries of the tract
stands unreversed, a survey under it is the execution of that decree,
and must conform to it in all respects. The Fossat Case, 649.
8. Such decrees are final, not only as to the questions of title, but as to
the boundaries which it specifies; and the remedy for error is by
appeal. Ib.; S. P. United States v. Billing, 444.
4. Semble, that in locating land in California, claimed under confirmed
Mexican grants, compactness of form and conformity to the lines of
the public surveys must be preserved, to the exclusion, if necessary,
of selections of the grantee as indicated by his settlement, or by his
sale or lease of parcels of the property. The Sutter Cáse, 562.
5. Semble, also, that land claimed under a confirmed Mexican grant may
be located in two parcels, where, from the character of the country,
the entire quantity granted cannot be located in one tract. Ib.
6. When the boundaries designated in a decree of the District Court, con-
firming a claim to land under a Mexican grant in California, embrace
a greater tract than the quantity confirmed, the grantees have the
right to select the location of this quantity, subject to the restriction
that the selection be made in one body and in a compact form; and
subject, also, in some instances, to selections made by their previous
residence, and by sales or other disposition by them of parcels of the
general tract. United States v. Pacheco, 587.
7. Where the common law prevails, if a decree confirming a Mexican
grant mentions a bay as one of the boundaries of the land confirmed,
without any further particulars, the line of ordinary high-water mark
will be considered as intended. Ib.
III. ACT OF CONGRESS 14TH JUNE, 1860 (Survey Law).
8. An appeal lies to this court from a decree of the District Court for
California, in a proceeding under the act of 14th June, 1860 (12 Sta-
tutes at Large, 33), commonly called the Survey Law. The Fossat
Case, 649.
9. If no appeal from such a decree be taken by the United States, they
may appear in this court as appellees, but cannot demand a reversal
or change of the decree. 1b.
10. Appeals on frivolous grounds, from decrees in cases of California sur-
veys, in the name of the United States, acting for intervenors, under
the act of June 14, 1860, are discouraged as being liable to abuse;
since, on the one hand, the party wronged by the appeal gets no costs
from the Government; while, on the other, the Government is made
to pay the expenses of a suit promoted under its name by persons
who may be litigious intervenors merely. United States v. Billing,
444.
11. Under this Survey Law, the District Court has no power to amend
or change the decree of confirmation previously made. The Fossat
Case, 649.
IV. IN DEFEAT OF MEXICAN GRANTS.
12. When a claim to land in California is asserted as derived through the
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