DONOVAN v. SALEM & PHILADELPHIA NAVIGATION CO.

DONOVAN v. SALEM & PHILADELPHIA NAVIGATION CO. (District Court, E. D. Pennsylvania. January 19, 1906.) No. 56. Shifting — Master—Action for Wages — Proof of Contract. Evidence held insufficient to establish a contract for the employment of libelant as captain of a vessel, so as to sustain an action thereon to recover wages. In Admiralty. Action for wages. See 134 Fed. 316. Willard M. Harris, for libelant. J. Warren Coulston and Adolph Schewe, for respondent. [MAJORITY — J. B. McPHERSON, District Judge.] J. B. McPHERSON, District Judge. The claim of the libelant is that he was employed as the captain of one of the respondent’s steamboats, and that a certain amount of wages is due him on this account. The vital and disputed point of the case is whether or not a contract of employment was ever made, and upon this subject the testimony leaves me in no doubt. It is certain that the respondent at one time intended to give the libelant the position of captain, but this intention was never carried out. I am satisfied that no contract of hiring was made by any one on behalf of the respondent, and for this reason the libelant’s case must necessarily fall. The libel will be dismissed, with costs.