There are one or
two other acts mentioned in the pleadings, which principally respect the
time allowed for complying with the condition of the grant, and are not
material to the discussion of the case.
By these acts, then, an exclusive right is given to Livingston and
Fulton to use steam navigation on all the waters of New York, for thirty
years from 1808.
It is not necessary to recite the several conveyances and agreements,
stated in the record, by which Ogden, the plaintiff below, derives title
under Livingston and Fulton to the exclusive use of part of these waters
for steam navigation.
The appellant being owner of a steamboat, and being found navigating the
waters between New Jersey and the city of New York, over which waters
Ogden, the plaintiff below, claims an exclusive right, under Livingston
and Fulton, this bill was filed against him by Ogden, in October, 1818,
and an injunction granted, restraining him from such use of his boat.
This injunction was made perpetual, on the final hearing of the cause,
in the Court of Chancery; and the decree of the Chancellor has been duly
affirmed in the Court of Errors. The right, therefore, which the
plaintiff below asserts, to have and maintain his injunction, depends
obviously on the general validity of the New York laws, and especially
on their force and operation as against the right set up by the
defendant. This right he states in his answer to be, that he is a
citizen of New Jersey, and owner of the steamboat in question; that the
boat is a vessel of more than twenty tons burden, duly enrolled and
licensed for carrying on the coasting trade, and intended to be employed
by him in that trade, between Elizabethtown, in New Jersey, and the city
of New York; and that it was actually employed in navigating between
those places at the time of, and until notice of, the injunction from
the Court of Chancery was served on him.
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