Opinion of the Court. Voyage she was then making, exceeded $200,000, and her freight then pending exceeded $2300; that the amount to be apportioned among the several persons who so suffered loss by such collision exceeded $202,300; that the Dimock had not been libelled or arrested in any court to answer for such loss, and her owner had not theretofore been sued in that behalf; and that the Dimock was then within the Southern District of New York, and subject to the control of the court for the purposes of the proceeding. The prayer of the libel was, that the court would proceed to establish the loss suffered in the premises by all persons who might make any claim of liability therefor against the Dimock or her owner, and would proceed in due course to ascertain the value of the Dimock and her freight then pending, and the proportionate amount of compensation for said matters which the libellant was entitled to receive from the owner of the Dimock, and to decree the payment thereof against either the Dimock or her owner, or both, as might be lawful and proper; and for further relief; that process might issue against the Dimock, and she be condemned and sold to pay said damages; and that the steamship company, Vanderbilt, and all persons claiming to have suffered loss by such collision might be cited in due form to appear and answer, and to prove their claims in that behalf. Under process duly issued on that libel, the Dimock was attached by the marshal on September 30, 1892, in the Southern District of New York, and on the 1st of October, 1892, in that district, process of monition was duly served by him on the steamship company; and on the same day proctors for Vanderbilt duly entered their appearance for him in the suit. On the 1st of October, 1892, on an affidavit, and on all the pleadings and proceedings, the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York made an order for Morrison to show cause why his libel should not be dismissed as to the Dimock and the steamship company, and the process issued against the Dimock be set aside, and the steamship company have such other or further relief as might be Opinion of the Court. just. The motion of the steamship company to that effect was heard on the papers mentioned, on additional affidavits on behalf of that company, on a copy of the record of the District Court in Massachusetts, and on affidavits on the part of the libellant; and on the 7th of October, 1892, the District Court, held by Judge Brown, made an order directing that the process issued on Morrison's libel be vacated; that the service thereof on the steamship company be set aside; that the Dimock be released and set free from the attachment; and that the libel be dismissed. The order further said: "This order is made upon the grounds and for the reasons stated in the opinion filed this day, to which reference is hereby made as a part hereof." In the opinion of Judge Brown, so referred to, (The H. F. Dimock, 52 Fed. Rep. 598,) it was held that Morrison had notice, before his libel was filed, of the proceedings in the District Court in Massachusetts, and of the injunction order issued by that court on August 17, 1892. The opinion considered the contention of Morrison that the District Court in Massachusetts never acquired jurisdiction or authority to issue the restraining order, on the grounds that the Dimock had never been arrested by or surrendered to that court, nor had any stipulation been given for her proper value, as a substitution for her, under Rule 54 of this court in admiralty, and because the appraisement proceeding was ex parte and without any notice of it, or of the application for it, having been given, or attempted to be given, to Vanderbilt or any other creditor, and because the appraisement was for less than onehalf of the value of the vessel, and that, therefore, the appraisement was not a "due appraisement," within Rule 54. The District Court in New York held that the original ex parte appraisement and stipulation were not a finality, incapable of subsequent inquiry or correction by the court on due application; that it was competent for the District Court in Massachusetts to order a reappraisement and further security, upon application by any creditor, showing that the previous appraisement was mistaken and inadequate, and that the duty of the appraisers had been performed inadequately; that the matter Opinion of the Court. fell within the domain of practice, to be regulated by that District Court, in the absence of any express rule of this court, as the interests of justice seemed to demand; that, as Rule 54 of this court did not in terms require any notice to creditors of the original appraisement and stipulation, the District Court was not prepared to hold that the "due appraisement," provided for by that rule, might not be, in the first instance, an ex parte one, to be supplemented thereafter, if unsatisfactory, by further inquiry on the application of a creditor; that the want of notice did not constitute a jurisdictional defect in the appraisement and stipulation, so as to render void the order for a monition and other subsequent steps in the cause, including the injunction against all other suits, provided for by Rule 54; that the prior proceeding in the District Court in Massachusetts was valid, and the libel of Morrison was improperly filed; and that it should be dismissed. On the 17th of October, 1892, Morrison presented to this court a petition for a writ of mandamus directing the District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Judge Brown, notwithstanding the matters contained in the moving affidavits before that court, and notwithstanding the proceedings in the District Court of the United States in Massachusetts, to vacate the order of October 7, 1892, and to reinstate Morrison's libel and proceed thereon according to law. Accompanying the petition are copies of all the papers in the suit of Morrison and of all the papers constituting the record in the suit in the District Court in Massachusetts. Judge Brown has made return to the order to show cause, and the case has been orally argued here by the counsel for both parties, and full briefs have been submitted to this court. The District Court in New York disposed of the question. before it on the merits, and dismissed the libel. Although in its opinion the court said that Morrison's libel was "improperly filed," yet the court did not refuse jurisdiction of that libel. On the contrary, it said that the proceeding by Morrison to limit liability was in accordance with the provisions of $4284 of the Revised Statutes. What it did was to hold that the libel must be dismissed on the ground that there was a Opinion of the Court. valid defence to it, in the prior proceedings instituted in the District Court for Massachusetts, which court had full jurisdiction of the cause. What it said was that Morrison's libel was improperly filed, because it was filed in violation of a valid restraining order, issued on the 17th of August, 1892, by the District Court for Massachusetts. The District Court in New York having dismissed the libel out of court, on a hearing of the case on the merits, we are now asked to direct it to vacate its order of dismissal, and to reinstate the cause, and to proceed upon the libel. This is in effect asking us to direct the District Court to decide in a particular way the matter heard before it, which is never the office of a mandamus. Ex parte Morgan, 114 U. S. 174; Ex parte Brown, 116 U. S. 401. Moreover, the present attempt is one to use a mandamus as a writ of error, which cannot be done. Ex parte Railway Co., 103 U. S. 794, 796; Ex parte Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 108 U. S. 566; In re Pennsylvania Co., 137 U. S. 451, 453. In addition to this, a mandamus is never granted where the party asking it has another remedy. In re Pennsylvania Co., supra. In the present case, it is claimed by Morrison that the jurisdiction of the District Court in New York was in issue before that court. If so, the remedy of Morrison was by an appeal from the District Court directly to this court, on the question of jurisdiction, under § 5 of the act of March 3, 1891, c. 517, 26 Stat. 827. If the question of the jurisdiction of the District Court was not in issue before that court, then the remedy of Morrison, as against the order of the District Court dismissing his libel, was by an appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, under § 6 of the same act. For the foregoing reasons, the prayer of the petition for a mandamus in No. 8, Original, must be denied. In No. 9, Original, the question involved is as to the validity of the proceedings in the District Court for Massachusetts. Morrison applies to this court for a writ of prohibition to the District Court for Massachusetts, from proceeding further upon the libel and petition filed in that court by the Metropolitan Steamship Company. The District Judge has made a return Opinion of the Court. to the order to show cause, issued on the petition for prohibition, setting forth in full the proceedings before recited, and stating that due appraisement was made of the Dimock and her freight, "according to the usual course and practice of the said District Court in such cases, by three persons known to me to be persons of integrity, and of skill and experience in such matters; and such appraisement was duly made and returned." It is urged for Morrison that, in the libel and petition filed by the Metropolitan Steamship Company in the District Court for Massachusetts, the company did not ask for the appointment of a trustee, or convey, or offer to convey, its interest in the Dimock and her pending freight to a trustee, pursuant to 84285 of the Revised Statutes of the United States; that it did not allege, in its original libel and petition, that the vessel was within the District of Massachusetts, nor pray any process against her, nor in any way surrender her to the custody of the said District Court; that it did not offer, in case the court should adjudge the company to be liable to any extent for the collision, to pay the value of the vessel and freight into court for distribution; that it did not allege that any person except Vanderbilt suffered loss by the collision; that the order issued by the District Court in Massachusetts, on August 17, 1892, was not a mere temporary restraining order, to last only until a hearing could be had, but was an absolute injunction, which contained no provision for a hearing of the damage claimants. on the matter thereof, and did not purport to be made on notice and an opportunity to be heard, given to any person interested adversely to the steamship company; that the amendment to the libel was not made until August 27, 1892; that the Dimock was never attached by any process issued out of the District Court for Massachusetts, and that court never took her into its custody or assumed control of her; that it appeared by affidavit that, after the libel in Massachusetts was amended, and before Morrison's libel was filed in the Southern District of New York, the Dimock departed from the District of Massachusetts and was no longer in that district or subject to the control of the court for that district, or within the reach of the process of that court, such departure being without any |