Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/844

830 FEDERAL RBPOBTER. �between the title of the crew to the freight and that of the vessel or owners. It is in its own nature as perfectly a joint or partnership interest as can be oonceived. Tbese opinions expressed are not new." Ware, J., The Brig Spar- tan, 1 Ware, 139. But it bas been beld that when a gar- nishee was sought to be charged on the ground that he was indebted to the defendant in respect of a partnership whieh had existed between them, but the accounts of which had not been settled, the proceeding could not be sustained. Burn- ham V. Hophinson, 17 N. H. 259. Whether, in this pres- ent case, the freight eamed by these seamen bas been col- lected or not, we do not know. If the freight bas not been collected, the seaman must lose his interest in it, if the gar- nishment of the owner's debt for the wages holds good. If it bas been collected, it is held by the owners in trust for the seaman pro tanto. And, inasmuch as the trust cannot be enforced in the second district court of Bristol county, to uphold the attachment ia to overthrow the trust. "Garnish- ment can bave no efifect to overthrow trusts." Drake on Attachments, § 454A. �In regard to the garnishment of a legacy, which is a sum of money payable out of the estate, subject to chancery juris- diction, where the executer is treated as trustee of the estate for the benefit of those interested in it, it bas been held to be exempt from attachment, because of the great inconvenience and manifest incongruity attending the appli- cation of the law of garnishment in such cases. "Seamen are emphatically the wards of the admiralty, and, although not technically incapable of entering into a valid contraet, they are treated in the same manner as courts of equity are accustomed to treat young heirs dealing with their expectan- cies, and ccstui que trusts with their trustees." Story, 3.^ Harnden v. Gordon, 2 Mason, 541. The rightsof seamen, by virtue of the contraet of liire, are those of a cestui que trust, of a mortgagee, of. a part owner of the freight. They have privileges, personal in their nature, conferred by the law and upheld everywhere upon grounds of public policy. Caumont, Dict. Droit Maritime, 677, title "Gens de Mer." If great in- ����