The ferry played a large role in cementing the Manhattan-Brooklyn rivalry. Two charters – the first in 1686, the second in 1708 – gave to Manhattan ownership of the lines and essentially all of the Brooklyn waterfront. In 1745, Hendrick Remsen brought a lawsuit against New York; after thirty years, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, awarding him his original five shillings plus court costs of nearly 2,375 shillings (475 times his original request). The city appealed to the crown, but America's declaration of independence threw the case into legal limbo, allowing the City of New York to retain its claim to the Brooklyn waterfront.