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| The FANNY.
22 U.S. 658 (1824) 9 Wheat. 658
PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Libellant, the Consul General of Portugal, filed a libel on behalf of Portuguese subjects, owners of hides that were brought from St. Thomas to Baltimore on a brig. The district court decreed the claimants to pay libellant the appraised value of the hides, together with interest and costs, after deducting freight. The parties sought review of a decision of the Circuit Court of Maryland, which wholly affirmed the district court's decree.
OVERVIEW: The capturing vessel was built at Baltimore, purchased by United States citizens, and armed and equipped as a vessel of war within the waters and jurisdiction of the United States. The court determined that the circuit court was correct in restoring to the original Portuguese owners the proceeds of the hides that were taken from the subjects of a friendly power. Property that was illegally captured by a privateer had to be restored to the original owners unless it could be maintained that the sale of the hides to the claimant divested the owners of their right to the same. The claimant's asserted purchase of the hides for a valuable consideration was unsupported by any evidence or written document whatsoever. The claimant was a purchaser from the agent of a tortious possessor of property to which he had no title and could consequently transfer none to the claimant. Therefore, the court concluded that the circuit court's decree was right and out to be affirmed so far as it restored the hides to libellant. However, the circuit court erred in ordering freight to be deducted from the proceeds of the hides that included freight of the lignum vitae that did not belong to libellants.
OUTCOME: The court affirmed so much of the circuit court's decree as ordered the claimant to pay libellant the appraised value of the hides, together with costs of suit, with costs, subject to such deduction for freight as the circuit court might direct. The court reversed the circuit court's decree and remanded for further proceedings to ascertain and separate the freight upon lignum vitae from that due upon the hides. |
