Cornell Steamboat Co. v. Phœnix Construction Co.

Citations

• 233 U.S. 593
• 34 S. Ct. 701
• 58 L. Ed. 1107
• 1914 U.S. LEXIS 1203

Syllabus

<p>While the fact of negligence may, if 'abstractly considered, be a state question concerning which this court would accept, and possibly might be bound by, the decision of the state court, when the negligence involves and concerns a subject of Federal jurisdiction which it is its duty to decide, this court must, to-the extent necessary to enable it to discharge that duty, consider the subject independent of the action of the state court. Southern Pacific Co. v. Schuyler, 227 U. S. 601.</p> <p>The fact that a vessel is anchored in a navigable river without the authority of the Secretary of War does not endow other vessels with a license to wrongfully injure it, nor does that fact relieve them from responsibility for colliding with the anchored vessel solely by their own negligence not contributed to in any way by it.</p>