ARTICLE II. Of the mode of procedure by and against boats and vessels. §1. Liability of master, owner, agent, or consignee of boat or vessel. 2. Priority of claim. Precedence of lien. 3. Suits may be instituted against the boat or vessel; proceedings. 4. What the complaint shall set forth; affidavit required. 5. Warrant to issue; what it shall contain. 6. Warrant, how returnable; proceedings. 7. Who may appear and plead. 8. Power of court to prescribe the time of pleading; trial, when to be had. 9. If bond given to plaintiff by captain, owner, &c., before final judgment, boat to be discharged. § 22. Executions, how issued and returned. 23 Justices of the peace have jurisdiction in certain cases. Plaintiff, in suits before justices, to make affidavit. Nature thereof. 24. Proceedings in such suits, how conducted. Justice not to order sale of boat or vessel. 25. Warrant issued by justice, returnable 26. How served and returned. 28. Fees allowed officers, &c. Appeal to be allowed. Writ of error may be prosecuted. No person to bind boat by admission of indebtedness. 29. 10. If bond be given to the sheriff, &c., boat to be delivered. 30. 11. Application to be made for order of sale, when. Order. Notice. Sale. Return. 12. Master, owner, &c., may at any time give bond before sale. 13. Officer selling to execute to purchaser a bill of sale. 14. Upon such sale, court to appoint a time when creditors shall appear and exhibit their demands. Notice to be given. 15. Exhibition of demands; duty of court and proceedings thereon. 16. Claims allowed, to be classed according to the order of liens. Court to order distribution. Proceedings thereon. 17. Continuance may be granted. Duty of court in case of continuance, or appeal. 18. Upon final rejection of claim, where the money has been retained, distribution how made. 19. Costs, by whom paid. 20. Judgment under this act. What it shali specify. Fieri facias thereon. 21. Judgment may be rendered against the principal and security in the bond, when. All suits, except first class, to be commenced within six months. 34. Boat taking cord wood without consent of owner to pay treble damages and twenty dollars penalty. 35. 36. Boat or vessel may institute suit, when. 37. Majority of owners may appoint a 38. Failure to deliver, proceedings to com- 40. Majority in interest of owners to deter- SECTION 1. Every boat or vessel used in navigating the waters of this Territory shall be liable and subject to a lien in the following cases: First. For all wages due to hands or persons employed on board. such boat or vessel, for work done or services rendered on board the same, except for wages which may be due to the master or the clerk thereof. Second. For all debts contracted by the master, owner, agent, or consignee of such boat or vessel, on account of stores or supplies furnished for the use thereof, or on account of labor done, or materials furnished, by mechanics, tradesmen, or others, in the building, repairing, getting out, furnishing, or equipping thereof. Third. For all sums due for wharfage or anchorage of such boat or vessel within the Territory. Fourth. For all demands or damages accruing from the non-performance or mal-performance of any contract of affreightment, or of any contract touching the transportation of persons or property, entered into by the master, owner, agent, or consignee of such boat or vessel; and for damages for injuries done to persons or property by such boat or vessel.* SEC. 2. The classes of claims above specified shall have priority according to the order in which they are above enumerated, and the liens under this act shall have the precedence of all other liens and claims against such a boat or vessel. SEC. 3. Every person claiming the benefit of a lien, in either of the classes above enumerated, may commence his suit under this act, against the boat or vessel, by name, by filing a complaint against such boat or vessel with the clerk of the court having jurisdiction of the subject matter of the county in which the boat or vessel may be found. SEC. 4. The complaint shall set forth the plaintiff's demand in all its particulars, and on whose account the same accrued; it shall be verified by the affidavit of the plaintiff, or some credible person for him, and stand in lieu of a declaration. † SEC. 5. When such complaint shall be filed the clerk shall issue a warrant thereon, commanding the sheriff to seize the boat or vessel mentioned in the complaint, with her tackle, apparel, and furniture, and retain the same until discharged by due course of law. SEC. 6. Such warrant shall be returnable to the same term as a summons issued at the same time would be made returnable, and, upon the return thereof, proceedings shall be had against the boat or vessel in the same manner as if suit had been instituted against the person on whose account the demand accrued. SEC. 7. The owner, captain, agent, consignee, or any creditor of such beat or vessel, may appear to the action, on behalf of the boat or vessel, and plead thereto and defend the same; but no person shall have power to confess judgment for such boat or vessel, or in any manner to admit the plaintiff's demand, unless he is authorized, in writing, by all the owners to do so. SEC. 8. The several courts shall have power, by rule, to prescribe the time and manner of filing the pleadings or other papers, and of taking any needful steps in suits under this act, where the same is not herein prescribed; but in all such suits the trial shall be had at the first term, unless a continuance shall be granted for cause shown: but no continuance shall operate to discharge the boat or vessel from custody. SEC. 9. If the captain, owner, agent, or consignee, shall, before *Bridgeford et al. vs. Steamboat Elk, 6 Missouri Rep., 356. Erskine & Gore rs. Steamboat Thames, 6 Missouri Rep., 371. Perpetual Insurance Company vs. Steamboat Detroit, 6 Missouri Rep., 374. Camden & Co. rs. Steamboat Georgia, 6 Missouri Rep., 381. Russel vs. Steamboat Elk, 6 Missouri Rep., 553. † Byrne vs. Steamboat Elk, 6 Missouri Rep., 555. Steamboat General Brady vs. Buckley & Randolph, 6 Missouri Rep., 55; 8 Johnson vs. Strader et al, 3 Missouri Rep., 254. final judgment, give bond to the plaintiff, with sufficient security, to be approved by the court, or the judge or clerk thereof in vacation, or the justice of the peace before whom the action may be pending, conditioned to satisfy the amount which may be adjudged in favor of the plaintiff, against such boat or vessel, with all costs, the boat or vessel, with its tackle, apparel, and furniture, shall be discharged from further detention by the officer having the custody thereof, and shall be discharged from the lien of the plaintiff's demands. SEC. 10. If the captain, owner, agent, or consignee of any boat or vessel, seized and held by virtue of any warrant under this act, shall give bond to the sheriff or other officer having custody thereof, with good security, to be approved by such officer, in double the value of the boat or vessel, conditioned for the return of the same at a time and place to be therein specified, the sheriff or other officer shall deliver the boat or the vessel to the person giving such bond; but the lien of the claim sued on shall not be discharged or affected by such proceedings. SEC. 11. If a boat or vessel shall be seized under this act, and no person shall, within five days after the seizure, give bond, according to some one of the two preceding sections, the sheriff or other officer having custody thereof, shall make a statement of the facts to the court in which the suit was instituted, or the judge thereof in vacation, and apply for an order of sale, and such court or judge shall hear the application without delay, and may make an order that the sheriff or other officer shall sell the boat or vessel to the highest bidder, for cash, after giving such notice as may be prescribed in the order, not less than twenty days, by publication in some newspaper published in or nearest to the county; and upon such sale being made, the officer making the same shall retain the money arising therefrom, subject to the order of the court under whose authority the sale was made; and the officer making the sale shall make return of his proceedings, under the order of sale, into the court from which the order issued. SEC. 12. The master, owner, agent, or consignee of the boat or vessel, may, at any time before a sale is made under the last preceding section, give bond, as provided either in the ninth or tenth section of this act, and with the effect in the said sections prescribed. SEC. 13. When any boat or vessel shall be sold, under the eleventh section of this act, the officer making the sale shall execute to the purchaser a bill of sale therefor, and such boat or vessel shall, in the hands of the purchaser and his assigns, be free and discharged from all previous liens and claims under this act. SEC. 14. When a boat or vessel shall be sold under the foregoing provisions of this act, the court by whose authority the sale was made shall appoint a time at which all creditors of the boat, having a lien upon the same, shall appear and exhibit their demands in such court against such boat; and the court shall cause a notice of such appointment to be given to the creditors of the boat by a proper publication in a newspaper, which notice shall be in the form and published in the manner which the court may prescribe in each case. SEC. 15. At the time appointed by the court for the exhibition of demands against the boat or vessel sold, the creditors of such boat or vessel shall exhibit their demands to the court, and the court shall proceed to hear and allow or reject the same; and any party interested in the boat, or a creditor thereof, or any agent therefor, may appear and object to the allowance of any demand; and if either party require a jury, the claim shall be submitted to a jury under the direction of the court, without any formal pleadings, the court having power to grant a new trial as in ordinary suits at law, and with the same right of appeal by either party as in ordinary suits. SEC. 16. When the claims against a boat or vessel are decided, those that are allowed shall be classed according to the order of liens, as in this act prescribed, and the court shall order the distribution of the net proceeds of the sale of the boat or vessel among the creditors whose claims are thus allowed, applying the money to the entire payment of claims in a prior class before any payment shall be made upon claims in a subsequent class; and when the money to be applied to any class shall be insufficient to pay all the claims of that class, it shall be apportioned rateably among the claims in such class. SEC. 17. The court may grant a continuance upon cause shown by either party when a claim is exhibited; but in such case, or in case of an appeal from the decision of the court upon a claim exhibited, the court shall proceed to distribute the money arising from the sale of the boat among the creditors whose claims are allowed according to the classification before directed, retaining in the hands of the officer making the sale, or subject to the order of the court, so much of the money as will satisfy the amount to which such claimant may become entitled, if his claim shall be finally allowed, together with the costs of the proceeding. SEC. 18. Upon the final rejection of any claim, when a continuance may have been granted or an appeal taken, the money retained under the order of the court to be applied to such claims shall be distributed among the creditors whose claims have been allowed as before directed. SEC. 19. The costs, in all cases where a demand shall be rejected, shall be paid by the claimant; where the demand is allowed, the costs shall be paid out of the money arising from the sale of the boat. SEC. 20. If judgment in any suit under this act be rendered against any boat or vessel, the jodgment shall specify to which class of liens the demand belongs; and a special writ of fieri facias shall be issued thereon, also specifying the class of liens to which the demand belongs, and commanding the sheriff to sell the boat or vessel, with her tackle, apparel and furniture, to satisfy the payment and all costs; and upon such writ the sheriff may sell such part of the boat or vessel, or her tackle or furniture, or such interest therein, as may be necessary to satisfy the judgment and costs. * SEC. 21. If bond and security be given according to the ninth section of this act, and the plaintiff shall recover judgment, the judgment shall be rendered against the principal and security on the Dobyns vs. sheriff of St. Louis county. 5 Missouri Rep., 256. bond, and not against the boat or vessel; and executions shall be issued against them as upon ordinary judgments at law. SEC. 22. Executions issued under this act shall be proceeded on and returned as in case of executions issued in ordinary suits at law. SEC. 23. Justices of the peace, in their respective townships, shall have jurisdiction of all cases under this act when the demand shall not exceed the sum of one hundred dollars; but every plaintiff, at the time of instituting a suit before a justice of the peace against a boat or vessel, shall make affidavit that he has not then any other demand against such boat or vessel which is a lien thereon; and if it shall be made to appear in any suit before a justice of the peace, that the plaintiff has divided his demand in order to give jurisdiction thereof to justices of the peace, such plaintiff shall lose all lien upon the boat or vessel. SEC. 24. In all suits before justices of the peace, under this act, the proceedings shall conform to the law governing justices' courts, and as nearly as may be to the provisions of this act as applying to the courts having jurisdiction of the subject matter in dispute; but no justice of the peace shall have power to order the sale of any boat or vessel as provided for in the eleventh section of this act. SEC. 25. Every warrant issued by a justice of the peace, under this act, shall be returnable forthwith, and upon the return thereof the justice shall hear and determine the complaint in a summary manner. SEC. 26. All warrants issued under this act shall be served and returned as writs of attachment are served and returned. SEC. 27. No continuance shall be granted by a justice of the peace to the plaintiff, unless a continuance has previously been granted on the application of some person defending the boat or vessel; and in such case, if the plaintiff at the time to which the suit has been continued shall show good and sufficient cause for the continuance, the justice of the peace may grant one continuance to the plaintiff. SEC. 28. Sheriffs, constables and other officers shall receive the same fees and compensation for their services under this act, as are allowed for like services in suits by attachment. SEC. 29. The captain, agent, owner, consignee, or other person interested in the boat or vessel, or any creditor thereof, may appeal from any judgment rendered against the boat or vessel, or may prosecute a writ of error to reverse such judgment. SEC. 30. Neither the captain, clerk, nor other officer of any boat or vessel, shall have power to bind the boat or vessel by giving bonds or notes, or by making any other admission of the indebtedness of the boat to any person whatever. SEC. 31. If the captain or clerk shall become interested in any demand of any other person against the boat or vessel of which he is an officer, such demand shall not be longer a lien upon the boat or vessel. SEC. 32. No more than two months' wages shall be recovered in any suit upon a lien in the first class above enumerated; and every person claiming a lien in that class shall commence his suit within thirty days after he shall have earned two months' wages; or if the |