Now, where the vessel is not partnership property, according to the clear weight of authority in this country, one part owner has no lien for his advances and disbursements upon the share of his coöwner. Nor does it make any difference that the part owner making such advances was also the ship's husband. In treating of this subject, Mr. Justice Curtis, in the case of the Larch, 2 Curt. 434, State, after remarking that in England the law is now settled against the existence of the lien, said:
"There has been some diversity of decision in this country, but I think it has proceeded from diversity in the views taken of the particular facts of the cases, rather than from any real difference in principles. That the owners of a vessel may be copartners in respect to that, as well as any other property, and that, when they are so, each has a lien, can not be doubted. But where no such special relation exists, where they are merely part owners, and as such tenants in common, that one has no lien on the share of another for advances, I believe to be equally clear."
3. Corporations.—
Corporations organized under state laws may be the owners of American vessels. A corporation is a legal person having an individuality distinct from all its stockholders. It is the corporation, and not the stockholders, who owns the corporation property. For that reason the Attorney General has expressed the opinion (29 Op. 188) in a case in which a vessel was owned by a corporation of the State of New York, a majority of whose stock was held by aliens and whose directors were all aliens, except three, that, under the laws, so long as the corporation was legally organized and existing as an American corporation under the laws of New York, a vessel owned by it was entitled to American registry.
It is unlawful, without obtaining permission of the Shipping Board, to place under foreign registry, a vessel owned wholly or in part by an American corporation or to transfer such vessel to any person other than a citizen (Merchant Marine Act, 1920. See Appendix), and within the meaning of that act no corporation is deemed a citizen unless the stock control and management are vested in individual Americans. To enable a corporate-owned vessel to engage in the coasting trade, 75 per cent of the interest in the corporation must be American owned.
4. Majority Interest.—
The majority interest will usually control, whether the title is in a corporation or individuals. Thus the majority may direct or change the employment of the vessel, pledge her for supplies or repairs, and employ or dismiss the master and crew. If the master be also a part-owner, the majority still has the right to remove him, unless there is a valid written agreement to the contrary. In the Orleans v. Phœbus, 11 Peters, (U. S.) 175, it appeared that Phœbus was master and owner of one-sixth of the steamboat Orleans. He alleged that he had been dispossessed by the owners of the other five sixths, who were operating the vessel against his wishes. Speaking for the Supreme Court, Justice Story said:
The majority of the owners have a right to employ the ship in such voyages as they may please; giving a stipulation to the dissenting owners for the safe return of the ship, if the latter, upon a proper libel filed in the admiralty, require it. And the minority of the owners may employ the ship in the like manner, if the majority decline to employ her at all.
Similarly Justice Clifford, in The Wm. Bagaley, 5 Wall. 377:
Even where the part owners of a ship are tenants in common, the majority in interest appoint the master and control the ship, unless they have surrendered that right by agreeing in the choice of the ship's husband as managing owner.