Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/317/575/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 05:50:53+00:00

Document:
Brady v. Roosevelt Steamship Co.
1. An action to recover for a death resulting from injuries sustained when a rung of a ladder broke as the decedent, a United States customs inspector, in the course of his official duties, was climbing to board a vessel docked at a pier, is within the admiralty jurisdiction. Pp. 317 U. S. 576-577.
2. The Suits in Admiralty Act does not preclude a suit against a private corporation (none of whose stock is owned directly or indirectly by the United States) to recover damages for a maritime tort arising out of the negligent operation of a vessel owned by the United States Maritime Commission, and which the corporation operates under a contract made pursuant to § 707(c) of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, even though the contract may give to the corporation in such case a right of exoneration or indemnity against the Commission. Fleet Corporation v. Lustgarten, 280 U. S. 320, overruled pro tanto. Pp. 317 U. S. 578, 317 U. S. 582.
The Suits in Admiralty Act does not restrict the remedy in such case to a libel in personam against the United States or the Maritime Commission.
Certiorari, post, p. 609, to review the reversal of a judgment for the plaintiff in a suit against the steamship company to recover damages for the death of plaintiff's intestate.
S.S. Unicoi was a vessel owned by the United States Maritime Commission and operated for it by respondent under a contract covering this and other vessels. The contract [Footnote 1] recites that it was made pursuant to § 707(c) of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, 49 Stat. 2009, 46 U.S.C. § 1197(c). See § 704, 46 U.S.C. § 1194, the Commission having advertised the line for charter and having failed to receive satisfactory bids. Respondent is a private corporation, none of whose stock is owned directly or indirectly by the United States.
The deceased was a United States customs inspector. While boarding the vessel on his official duties in July, 1938, a rung of the ladder which he was climbing broke. The injuries which resulted caused his death. At the time of the injury, the vessel was docked at a pier in New York City.
Petitioner, the widow, sued as administratrix to recover damages for the benefit of herself and the children. That suit was brought in the New York Supreme Court, but removed to the federal District Court. Respondent moved to dismiss on the authority of Johnson v. Emergency Fleet Corp., 280 U. S. 320. That motion was denied, and a trial to a jury on the law side of the court was had. A verdict for petitioner was returned. On appeal, the judgment was reversed with directions to dismiss the complaint, one judge dissenting. The Circuit Court of Appeals stated in reaching that result that the Suits in Admiralty Act, 41 Stat. 525, 46 U.S.C. §§ 741, 742, as construed by the decision in the Johnson case, made the remedies afforded by that Act the exclusive ones, viz., a libel in personam against the United States or the Maritime Commission. 128 F.2d 169. We granted the petition for a writ of certiorari because of the public importance of the problem. 3 17 U.S. 609.
We agree with the court below that this was a maritime tort over which the admiralty court has jurisdiction. Vancouver S.S. Co. v. Rice, 288 U. S. 445; The Admiral Peoples, 295 U. S. 649. And we may assume that petitioner could have sued either the United States or the Commission under the Suits in Admiralty Act. In any event, such a suit would be the exclusive remedy in admiralty against either of them. Eastern Transportation Co. v. United States, 272 U. S. 675; Emergency Fleet Corp. v. Rosenberg Bros. & Co., 276 U. S. 202. And it is likewise clear that the action in admiralty afforded by § 2 of the Suits in Admiralty Act is the only available remedy against the United States or a corporation whose entire outstanding capital stock is owned by the United States or its representatives. Johnson v. Emergency Fleet Corp., supra. The sole question here is whether the Suits in Admiralty Act makes private operators such as respondent nonsuable for their torts.
"Directly or mediately, the money required to pay a judgment against any of the defendants in these cases would come out of the United States. It is the real party affected in all of these actions."
"if suits under the Tucker Act and in the Court of Claims be allowed against the United States, and actions at law in state and federal courts be permitted against the Fleet Corporation or other agents for enforcement of the maritime causes of action covered by the act."
280 U.S. at 280 U. S. 327. Accordingly, it concluded that "the remedies given by the act are exclusive in all cases where a libel might be filed under it." 280 U.S. at 280 U. S. 327. These statements, coupled with the fact that the judgment in the Lustgarten case was reversed not only as respects the Fleet Corporation, but the Consolidated Navigation Co. as well, support the view adopted by the court below.
Our conclusion, however, is that that position is untenable, and that the Lustgarten case, so far as it would prevent a private operator from being sued under the circumstances of this case, must be considered as no longer controlling.
There is ample support for the holding in the Johnson case that § 2 of the Suits in Admiralty Act was intended to provide the only available remedy against the United States or its wholly owned corporations for enforcement of maritime causes of action covered by the Act. But there is not the slightest intimation or suggestion in the history of that Act that it was designed to abolish all remedies which might exist against a private company for torts committed during its operation of government vessels under agency agreements.
"An instrumentality of Government he might be and for the greatest ends, but the agent, because he is agent, does not cease to be answerable for his acts."
"Mr. White of Maine. Would this bill apply to Shipping Board vessels that are allocated to private concerns and are being operated by private concerns?"
The reply was accurate. The Act does cover government ships operated by private concerns. For, as we have seen, § 1 is applicable to that situation as well as to others, and takes away the remedy of a libel in rem. But it is a non sequitur to say that, because the Act takes away the remedy of libel in rem in all cases involving government vessels and restricts the remedies against the United States and its wholly owned corporations, it must be presumed to have abolished all right to proceed against all other parties. Congress, in fashioning § 2 of the Act, like this Court in interpreting it in the Johnson case, was preoccupied with suits against the United States and its wholly owned corporations. Since it dealt under § 2 only with libels in personam against them, the only fair assumption is that it left all personal actions against others wholly unaffected.
"that, if this authority to carry out the project was validly conferred -- that is, if what was done was within the constitutional power of Congress -- there is no liability on the part of the contractor for executing its will."
"the general rule is that any person within the jurisdiction always is amenable to the law. If he is sued for conduct harmful to the plaintiff, his only shield is a constitutional rule of law that exonerates him."
Furthermore, if the United States were to become the real party in interest by reason of a contract for exoneration or indemnity, a basic alteration in that concept (Minnesota v. Hitchcock, 185 U. S. 373, 185 U. S. 387) would be made not pursuant to a Congressional policy, [Footnote 4] but by reason of concessions made by contracting officers of the government. Such a change would be detrimental to the interests of private claimants, as we have said, since it would subtract from the legal remedies which the law has afforded them. Beyond that, it would make the existence of a right to exoneration or indemnity a jurisdictional fact. That could hardly help but complicate and delay the enforcement of rights based on these maritime torts. At least in the absence of a clear Congressional policy to that end, we cannot go so far.
for his maritime tort. Whether a cause of action against respondent has been established is, of course, a different question, as the issues involved in Quinn v. Southgate Nelson Corp., supra, indicate. The Circuit Court of Appeals did not reach that question. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment and remand the cause to it.
"exercise reasonable care and diligence to maintain the vessels in a thoroughly efficient state of repair, covering hull, machinery, boilers, tackle, apparel, furniture, equipment, and spare parts."
"The Owner agrees to pay to the Managing Agent the actual overhead expenses of the Managing Agent determined by the Owner to have been fairly and reasonably incurred and to be properly applicable to the management and operation of the Commission's vessels under this agreement."
As to the liability of public officials, see generally 11 U. S. Munroe, 7 Cranch 242, 11 U. S. 269; Osborn v. United States Bank, 9 Wheat. 738, 22 U. S. 842-843; Wilkes v. Dinsman, 7 How. 89, 48 U. S. 123; Robertson v. Sichel, 127 U. S. 507; Spalding v. Vilas, 161 U. S. 483; Brissac v.Lawrence, 2 Blatchford 121; United States v. Rogde, 214 F. 283, 290.
The provision in § 8 of the Suits in Admiralty Act that any final judgment "rendered in any suit herein authorized" shall be paid "by the proper accounting officers of the United States" must be taken to refer only to judgments against the United States or its wholly owned corporations, since, under our construction, the Act does not control or affect actions in personam against private operators.
"The conclusion is inescapable that there is no practical difference between suits against the government as owner of the vessel and against the government as the party in interest when it voluntarily appears to defend its lately sold property against tort liability."

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