Maritime law

Two entries on this page look like verbs and are really an adjective with a helper, and the adjective decides the case. Verlustig gehen means to forfeit, and what is forfeited stands in the genitive, without a preposition: Der Berger geht des Bergelohns verlustig. Habhaft werden means to get hold of someone, and it works the same way: Die Fregatte wurde der Piraten habhaft. English reaches for « of » or a direct object and German for neither. The trap is the article: des for a masculine or neuter noun, which also takes -s or -es, and der for a feminine noun or any plural, which is why der Piraten can look like a subject to somebody who has not seen the adjective yet. Both phrases belong to judgments, statutes and reports, and a dative in their place is the mistake a lawyer notices first.