IVIARITIME CAUSE. A cause arising from a maritime contract, whether made at sea or on land.
2. The term includes such causes as -relate to the business, commerce, or navigation of the sea : as charter-parties, bills of lading, and other contracts of affreightment ; bet tcmry and respondentia contracts ; and con tracts for maritime services in repairing, sup plying, and navigating ships and vessels ; contracts and quasi contracts respecting ave rages, contributions, and jettisons, when the party prosecuting has a maritime lien ; and also those arising from torts and injuries com mitted on the high seas, or on other navigable waters within the admiralty jurisdiction. , 3. Suits for the recovery of damages foF the collision of ships and vessels constitute an important class of the causes founded upon marine torts ; and in these cases the admiralty courts adopt a rule of decision entirely dif ferent from that acted upon in common-law courts. In the latter a plaintiff whose ne,gli gence has contributed to the injury of which he complains cannot recover damages, al though the defendant has been equally, or even more, culpable ; but in cases of' collision the admiralty courts, when it is established that both vessels were in fault, or that the col lision must be attributed to the •fault of one or both of the vessels, and it cannot be deter Mined which, if either alone, was in fault, aggregate the damage to both, and then divide it between thein, decreeing that the owners of each shall bear half the whole loss. 2 Dods. Adria,. 85 ; 3 W. Rob. Adm. 38; 17 How. 172 ; 1 Conkling, Adm. 374-380.
4. Cases of Salvage are also within the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts; and they likewise exercise jurisdiction in favor of a part owner who dissents from the determination of a majority of the owners to employ the ship in a particular manner, and seeln to ob tain security for the safe return of the vessel. They also exercise a jurisdiction (founded upon a rule of national comity) for the pur pose of enforcing the decrees of foreign courts of admiralty, when the ends of justice require it. 1 Conkling, Adm. 2d ed. 26 ; 2 Gall. C.
C. 191, 197.
The admiralty courts of the United States also have jurisdiction of controversies between part-owners and others in relation to the title or possession of ships and vessels, Ware, Dist. Ct. 232 ; 2 Curt. C. C. 426 • 18 How. 267 ; also of all seizures under l'aws of im port, navigation, or trade of the United States, where such seizures are made on the high teas or on waters which are navigable from the sea by.vessels of ten or more tons burden.
See Judiciary Act, sec. 9, 1 U. S. Stat. at Large, 77.
5. In all cases of contract the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts depends upon the na ture or subject-matter of the contract ; but in cases of maritime tort and salvage their juris diction depends upon the place in which the cause of action accrued. 1 Conkling, Adm. 19, 32. In general, the courts of common law have a concurrent jurisdiction with courts of admiralty in those cases which, in legal par lance, are said to be prosecuted or protnoted on the instance side of the court. But the admiralty also 'has jurisdiction of prize cases, or cases arising upon captures jure belli; and that jurisdiction is exclusive.
6. In the United States, the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts is not limited to the cases of contracts relating to the navigation of the high seas or other waters within the ebb and flow of the tide, and to causes of action for torts committed on tide-waters, as was gene rally supposed prior to 1845, 10 Wheat. 428 ; 7 Pet. 324, 343 ; but it is now held to extend to the great lakes and to the other navigable waters of the United States, in respect to com merce with foreign nations and among the states. 12 HOW. 443, 468 ; 5 McLean, C. C. 269, 359 ; 20 How. 296.
The admiralty jurisdiction has been held not to extend to preliminary contracts, merely leading to the execution of maritime con tracts, 3 Mas. C. C. 6 ; 4 id. 380 ; 3 Sumn. C. C. 144 ; nor to matters of account between part-owners, II Pet. 175 ; nor to trusts, al though they may relate to maritime affairs, Dav. Dist. Ct. 71 ; nor to enforce a specific performance of a contract relating to inari time affairs ; nor to a contract not maritime in its character, although the consideratit,n fur it may be maritime services, 4 Mas. C. C. 380 ; nor to questions of possession and pro perty between owner and mortgagee, 17 How. 399 ; nor to contracts of affreightnient from one port of the great lakes to another port in the same state, 21 How. 244; nor to contracts for supplies furnished a vessel engaged in such trade only ; and, of course, such causee cannot be considered maritime causes. 21 How. 248.