Passenger Cases - Facts of The Case

Facts of The Case

This section requires expansion.

In each of these cases a State imposed a tax to be collected from the master of a ship entering a harbor of that State. In each case the captain of a British ship challenged the constitutionality of the State law. Other facts varied between the two cases.

Smith vs. Turner

The State of New York imposed a tax on the passenger and crew of each ship entering the Port of New York at the following rates:

1) If the vessel traveled from the State of Connecticut, New Jersey or Rhode Island, the tax would be 25 cents for each person on board on the first occasion of each month such ship entered the Port of New York.

2) If the vessel traveled from another State of the Union, the tax would be 25 cents for each person on board with respect to each voyage including an entry into the Port of New York.

3) If the vessel traveled from a foreign port, the tax would be

A) $1.50 for the master of the ship; B) $1.50 for each passenger of cabin class; C) $1.00 for each other crew member; D) $1.00 for each passenger of steerage class.

The revenues collected would be first directed to cover expenses of a marine hospital to care for those who arrived in a sickened state at the Port of New York. Excess revenues not needed for the maintenance of the marine hospital were redirected to the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the City of New York, a charitable organization caring for and confining delinquent boys.

Smith was the master of Henry Bliss, a British ship. The Henry Bliss sailed from Liverpool, England, and entered the Port of New York in June 1841. Steerage-class passengers, 295 in number, disembarked in New York City. Smith refused to pay the portion of the New York State tax that was measured by these steerage-class passengers. Turner, the Health Commissioner of the Port of New York, sued Smith for $295 in taxes due under New York State law.

Norris vs. City of Boston

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts had a law which required an appropriate official to board each ship which had alien passengers on board and which had entered a port of that State. This official was to examine each alien passenger and determine which of them, if any, were a lunatic, an idiot, maimed, aged, an infirm person, an incompetent, a pauper or who had been a pauper. Such a passenger would be permitted to disembark only upon the posting of a bond for $1,000.00. Other alien passengers would be permitted to disembark upon the payment of a tax by the master, owner, consignee, or agent of such vessel amounting to the sum of $2.00 for each such passenger so disembarking.

The revenue collected would be directed to a fund to pay for the support of aliens who had become paupers in Massachusetts.

Norris was the master of the Union Jack, a schooner from St. John, of the Province of New Brunswick, then part of the British Empire. The Union Jack sailed from St. John and arrived in the Boston harbor on June 26, 1837. Norris was compelled by Bailey, an official of the City of Boston, to pay $38.00 before the 19 alien passengers, none of whom were in such a state or had such a history requiring the posting of a bond, were permitted to disembark. Norris sued the City of Boston to recover the $38.00 as having been improperly compelled.