## Facts

- The steamboats *Hine* and *Sunshine* collided on the Mississippi River near St. Louis, damaging the *Sunshine*.
- Months later, the *Sunshine*’s owners caused the *Hine* to be seized in Davenport, Iowa under an Iowa “boat lien” statute to satisfy collision damages.
- The Iowa statute created a lien for injuries caused by a boat and authorized seizure and sale of the vessel without personal process against the owner or master, proceeding directly against the vessel.

## Issues

1. Whether a state may authorize a proceeding in rem against a vessel to recover for a maritime tort occurring on navigable waters.
2. Whether such a state in rem remedy conflicts with the federal district courts’ exclusive original jurisdiction over admiralty and maritime causes, notwithstanding the “saving to suitors” clause.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Iowa Supreme Court.
- The Court held the Iowa statutory procedure was, in substance, an admiralty in rem action against the vessel.
- Because admiralty in rem jurisdiction over maritime torts is exclusively vested in the federal district courts, Iowa courts lacked jurisdiction to seize and sell the *Hine* under the statute.
- The “saving to suitors” clause preserves common-law remedies against persons, not state-created in rem proceedings against vessels for maritime causes.

## Legal Principles

- Federal district courts have exclusive original jurisdiction over civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction when the remedy is an admiralty in rem proceeding.
- A state statute cannot confer on state courts a vessel-directed seizure-and-sale remedy that functions as an admiralty in rem action for a maritime tort.
- The “saving to suitors” clause preserves common-law remedies where competent—primarily in personam actions for damages—but does not preserve or authorize state in rem admiralty remedies.

## Conclusion

The Court invalidated Iowa’s attempt to enforce a maritime-collision claim through a state in rem seizure of the vessel, holding that admiralty in rem proceedings fall within the exclusive original jurisdiction of the federal district courts, with state courts limited to common-law, in personam remedies.


The Hine v. Trevor, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 555 (1866)