Source: https://openjurist.org/187/f2d/956/eastern-lines-v-united-states
Timestamp: 2018-07-19 06:24:37
Document Index: 606285374

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2', '§ 781', '§ 1346', '§ 1491', '§ 808', '§ 2', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 194', '§ 2', '§ 2']

187 F. 2d 956 - Eastern Lines v. United States
187 F2d 956 Eastern Lines v. United States
187 F.2d 956
EASTERN S. S. LINES, Inc.
The only issue raised on this appeal is whether the Acadia was "employed as a merchant vessel" within the meaning of § 2 of the Suits in Admiralty Act. If she was not so employed, it is conceded that there is no other basis of jurisdiction in the court below. The Public Vessels Act of 1925, 43 Stat. 1112, 46 U.S.C.A. § 781 et seq., gives jurisdiction to the district courts only over libels brought "for damages caused by a public vessel of the United States, and for compensation for towage and salvage services, including contract salvage, rendered to a public vessel of the United States"; it thus has no applicability to a contract claim such as that advanced in the case at bar. And since the claim of the present libel is for damages far in excess of $10,000, no action is maintainable in the district court under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1346. Hence if the libel is not maintainable under the Suits in Admiralty Act, the owner's only remedy is in the Court of Claims under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1491(4), and it is the government's contention here that suit in the Court of Claims is libelant's proper and only remedy. On the other hand, it is well settled that if the Suits in Admiralty Act is applicable, a libel under that Act is the exclusive remedy, and no action would be maintainable in the Court of Claims. Johnson v. U. S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corp., 1930, 280 U.S. 320, 50 S.Ct. 118, 74 L.Ed. 451; Matson Nav. Co. v. United States, 1932, 284 U.S. 352, 52 S.Ct. 162, 76 L.Ed. 336.
In the Shipping Act of 1916, 39 Stat. 728, 730, 46 U.S.C.A. § 808, it was provided that vessels purchased, chartered, or leased from the U. S. Shipping Board "while employed solely as merchant vessels shall be subject to all laws, regulations, and liabilities governing merchant vessels, whether the United States be interested therein as owner, in whole or in part, or hold any mortgage, lien, or other interest therein." The underlying thought of this provision undoubtedly was that, to the extent that the United States was engaged in commercial operations in competition with private shipping companies, its sovereign immunity ought not to stand as a barrier to the imposition of the normal liabilities to which vessels owned by private parties so engaged were subject. The Act was construed in The Lake Monroe, 1919, 250 U.S. 246, 39 S.Ct. 460, 63 L.Ed. 962, as permitting a district court, under a libel in rem arising out of a collision, to arrest a vessel owned by the United States and chartered to a private company for the commercial transportation of a cargo of coal. This result was deemed to be in conformity with the policy of the Act to subject merchant vessels owned or operated by the United States "to the same duties and liabilities as privately owned merchant vessels with which they competed." 250 U.S. at page 255, 39 S.Ct. at page 463, 63 L.Ed. 962.
The inconvenience to the United States resulting from the holding in the Lake Monroe case led to the enactment of the Suits in Admiralty Act, 41 Stat. 525. Section 1 of that Act provided that "no vessel owned by the United States * * * or in the possession of the United States * * * or operated by or for the United States * * * shall hereafter, in view of the provision herein made for a libel in personam, be subject to arrest or seizure by judicial process in the United States or its possessions". Section 2 provided that "in cases where if such vessel were privately owned or operated, * * * a proceeding in admiralty could be maintained at the time of the commencement of the action herein provided for, a libel in personam may be brought against the United States * * * provided that such vessel is employed as a merchant vessel * * *." Other sections of the Act are commented on in Eastern Transportation Co. v. United States, 1927, 272 U.S. 675, 47 S.Ct. 289, 71 L.Ed. 472.
The phrase "such vessel" appearing twice in the above-quoted portion of § 2 of the Suits in Admiralty Act obviously refers back to § 1, and means a "vessel owned by the United States * * * or in the possession of the United States * * * or operated by or for the United States * * *." The phrase in § 2, "a proceeding in admiralty", was held in Eastern Transportation Co. v. United States, 1927, 272 U.S. 675, 47 S.Ct. 289, 71 L.Ed. 472, to mean either a libel in personam or a libel in rem. In that case a vessel which was being operated by the United States in merchant service sank and became a total loss, and libelant's ship was damaged by collision with the unmarked wreck. Hence, a libel in rem would not have been an available remedy even had the wrecked vessel been privately owned or operated. But the Court held that the Suits in Admiralty Act had a wider purpose than merely to substitute the remedy of a libel in personam against the United States in cases where, otherwise, a libel in rem under the Shipping Act of 1916 could have been brought against a vessel owned or operated by the United States; the Act was intended to give a remedy in personam against the United States both in cases where the owner of the vessel, if privately owned, would be personally liable, and in those where only the vessel would be liable. The United States has not suggested that the phrase "provided that such vessel is employed as a merchant vessel" refers to the date on which the libel in personam against the United States is filed, with the result that the waiver of sovereign immunity provided in § 2 must be limited to a case where the vessel is owned or in the possession of the United States, or operated by or for the United States, and employed by the United States as a merchant vessel, at the date of the filing of the libel in personam against the United States. If such were the interpretation, of course without reference to other considerations the present libel could not be maintained. It is stated, however, in 1 Benedict on Admiralty § 194 (6th ed. 1940), that neither employment as a merchant vessel nor ownership by the government at the time of the filing of the libel under § 2 of the Suits in Admiralty Act is necessary to the maintenance of the suit. Cf. Mack Engineering & Supply Co. v. United States, D.C.S.D.N. Y.1922, 291 F. 713; Zeller Marine Corp. v. United States, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1946, 66 F. Supp. 447; Olavarria & Co., Inc. v. United States, D.C.S.D.Ala.1944, 56 F.Supp. 758.
We find no authoritative precedent militating against the conclusion we have reached. In James Shewan & Sons, Inc. v. United States, 1924, 266 U.S. 108, 45 S.Ct. 45, 69 L.Ed. 192, the steamship while owned by the United States and engaged in the mercantile trade had some repairs made to her by the libelant in May, 1920. Subsequently, on June 11, 1921, the vessel, which had theretofore been in the merchant service of the United States, was laid up in the out-of-use fleet in the custody of caretakers employed by the Shipping Board, and so remained at and after the time when the libel in admiralty to recover the value of the repairs was filed against the United States in May, 1922. The Court held that the libel could be maintained under the Suits in Admiralty Act. It pointed out, 266 U.S. at page 111, 45 S.Ct. at page 46, 69 L.Ed. 192, that under the Shipping Act of 1916 liability to suit of a vessel owned or controlled by the United States as a merchant vessel depended primarily, not upon the time when the suit was to be brought and the vessel was to be seized, "but upon her character as one solely engaged in merchant service when the transaction occurred out of which the liability grew." The Court further pointed out, 266 U.S. at page 113, 45 S.Ct. at page 46, 69 L.Ed. 192, that it would be a most unjust result to hold that "a mere suspension of the vessel's activity in merchant trade destroyed its quasi personal responsibility for its wrongs done or its liabilities incurred in that trade"; that the Suits in Admiralty Act had no such effect but, as applied to the case before the Court, merely substituted the remedy of a libel in personam for the remedy of a libel in rem which would have been available to the repairman under the Act of 1916. In Eastern Transportation Co. v. United States, 1927, 272 U.S. 675, 47 S.Ct. 289, 71 L.Ed. 472, the libelant was allowed to recover under the Suits in Admiralty Act for the loss of a barge which collided with the unmarked wreck of a government-owned vessel which had sunk a month previously while employed by the United States solely as a merchant vessel. The Court had little difficulty in concluding that the cause of action arose out of the government's commercial activities; the ship was being used as a merchant vessel when it sank, and the United States was under the same duty as a private owner to mark the wreck. The Court rejected the contention that the phrase in § 2 of the Suits in Admiralty Act "is employed as a merchant vessel" required that it should be actively thus employed at the time of the collision. It was enough that the cause of action grew "out of the responsibility of the government for a merchant vessel which in the course of its employment had become a danger to navigation and which imposed a duty to avoid that danger." 272 U.S. at page 692, 47 S.Ct. at page 293, 71 L.Ed. 472.