Liverpool, New York & Philadelphia Steamship Co. v. Commissioners of Emigration

Liverpool, New York & Philadelphia S. S. Co. v. Commissioners of Emigration, 113 U.S. 33 (1885), was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court, in which the court held that the plaintiff was in error, being a corporation under the laws of Great Britain, and an alien, had brought this action in the circuit court of the United States for the Southern district of New York, the defendant being a corporation of that state.

Background
The defendant, Liverpool, Philadelphia and New York Steamship Company, was indebted to the plaintiff for the sum of at least one million and ninety-three thousand dollars, regarding passengers in vessels arriving in the state of New York, and for the regulation of marine hospitals. the defendant was paid under the inducement of certain representations of the defendant, the plaintiff being an alien and not knowing the laws of the state of New York, and under protest.

Treating it as a complaint according to the procedure under the New York Code, the defendant filed an answer setting up several different defenses, which included the following: "That by an act of congress, entitled 'A bill to legalize the collection of head- moneys already paid,' approved June 19, 1878, the acts of every state and municipal officer or corporation in the several states of the United States in collection of head-moneys for every passenger brought to the United States prior to the first day of January 1877, under then existing laws of the several states, were declared valid, and the [113 U.S. 33, 35]."

The case was cited in the per curiam decision Petite vs. United States.