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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0100 and id is 1 raw text is: M'ANUFF V. WILLIS [1809]
appears by her papers to have been made of the property of the vessel. This, it is sub-
mitted, is merely an artifice to cover enemy's property, which may be inferred from
the constant money transactions he appears to have had relative to this vessel with
a mercantile house in Amsterdam.
The nature of the voyage is also suspicious. The vessel obtains a cargo at
Tremblade on adventure. She is thus without any specific port of destination, and
prepared to engage in any speculation, or enter any port it may be thought con-
venient. It is therefore submitted, that upon the principle cited in the case of the
Endrauglit, the domicile is not fairly made out, and that upon the doctrine estab-
lished by the judgment in the case of the Vigilancia (Robinson's Reports, vol. 1,
p. 4), the transfer of property is merely made for fraudulent purposes, and that
these objections, in conjunction with the doubtful and suspicious nature of the trade
in which she was engaged, must prove fatal to the asserted owner's interest, and
produce the condemnation of the vessel and cargo.
Sir W. Grant observed-that as there were two certificates in different periods
of peace, proving the vessel to be Papenburg property, and the vessel's trade had
been carried on principally to the Ems, the [118] decree of the Court below ought
to be affirmed. A sufficient indulgence had been given in the Court below to the
captors, by allowing their expences. With this they should have been satisfied.
The Court, therefore, thought it only a duty to condemn the appellants in costs.
[As to commercial domicil, see Joanna Emili?, 1854, Spinks, 12; Abo, 1854, ib.
42; Baltica, 1855, ib. 264; Holland, Man. NAav. Pr. Law, arts. 20 et seg.;
Dicey, Conflict of Laws, Appx. No. 4].
[119] AT COUNCIL.
M'ArUFF v. WILLIS [July 15, 1809].
Mortgage debts due on West India estates demurred against as usurious. The
demurrer overruled as informal and contrary to usage. The question of
usury not considered to, be therefore fairly before the Court.
In this appeal from the Chancery Court of the island of Jamaica, the appellant,
the surviving executor of the will of a West India planter, prayed the sentence of
that court might be reversed, which had decreed, that the estates of the testator
were subject to sundry debts contracted by him during his life-time, but which the
appellant contended had been usuriously incurred, and for which therefore the
Court could, in equity, give no remuneration.
Hart for the Appellant.-The testator, Robert Minto, had, it appears, engaged
deeply in speculations in the West India sugar trade, insomuch so, that he found
himself compelled to borrow money on his estates in Jamaica. On the 1st of
August 1799, by a deed of mortgage, the testator conveyed to the respondent and
his partner, Mr. Waterhouse, merchants in the West India trade, a plantation or
sugar-work called Water-valley, with the slaves and stock thereon, as a security for
£6263 then du'e, .and for all such sums as should be lent or advanced by the re-
spondent and his partner; and also executed a certain deed of defeazance between
the same parties, and of the same date, whereby [120] it was stipulated, that until
said sum, and all other sums which might be by him hereafter due to the respondent
and his partner, should be fully paid off, this Robert Minto should ship and consign
to them in England, all the produce of the said plantation in mortgage, and also of
another plantation called Dry-valley, and should also agree to purchase from the
respondent and partner, or their correspondents, all such provisions, negro-cloth-
ing, utensils, supplies, etc., as should be requisite to be imported by him from Great
Britain and Ireland, or be purchased in Kingston, Jamaica. During the time
Minto should so perform these several agreements faithfully, these merchants bound
themselves not to take any measures for the recovery of their demands until after
I ACTON, 118](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0100&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)