Opinion ID: 456284
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The in rem jurisdiction of the district court.

Text: 8 Before considering the merits of Farwest's lien claim, we must determine whether the district court retained jurisdiction over the Barge even after it quashed the vessel's arrest and permitted the Barge to be removed from the court's territorial waters. 9 Under the prevailing rule, the release or removal of the res from the control of the court will terminate jurisdiction, unless the res is released accidentally, fraudulently, or improperly. United States v. $57,480.05 United States Currency and Other Coins, 722 F.2d 1457, 1458 (9th Cir.1984); United States v. Vertol H21C Reg. No. N8540, 545 F.2d 648, 650 (9th Cir.1976). Because the Barge began plying the waters between Washington and Hawaii shortly after it was sold to The Carnation Company on April 23, 1982, and there is no allegation that it was released improperly, under this rule the district court would have been deprived of jurisdiction midway through its proceedings. The court's ensuing judgment that Farwest was not entitled to a lien would therefore be without a jurisdictional base, and we would only have appellate jurisdiction to review the dismissal of Farwest's in personam claim. See Alyeska Pipeline, 703 F.2d at 384; American Bank of Wage Claims v. Registry of District Court of Guam, 431 F.2d 1215, 1218 & n. 3 (9th Cir.1970). 10 The rule that the vessel be present in order to preserve in rem jurisdiction is founded on a long-standing admiralty fiction that a vessel may be assumed to be a person for the purpose of filing a lawsuit and enforcing a judgment. See Continental Grain Co. v. Barge FBL-585, 364 U.S. 19, 22-23, 80 S.Ct. 1470, 1473, 4 L.Ed.2d 1540 (1960). This fiction, however, has been referred to as archaic, an animistic survival from remote times, irrational, and atavistic, 364 U.S. at 23, 80 S.Ct. at 1473; and in several cases where vessels have been removed from their territorial reach, courts have refused to myopically apply this fiction of in rem jurisdiction. Treasure Salvors v. Unidentified Wrecked and Abandoned Sailing Vessel, 569 F.2d 330, 334 (5th Cir.1978); see Continental Grain, 364 U.S. 19, 80 S.Ct. 1470, 4 L.Ed.2d 1540 (permitting transfer of a claim on an in rem admiralty action to a district in which the res was not present); Inland Credit Corp. v. M/T Bow Egret, 552 F.2d 1148, 1152, reh'g denied, 556 F.2d 756 (5th Cir.1977); Reed v. Steamship Yaka, 307 F.2d 203 (3d Cir.1962), rev'd on other grounds, 373 U.S. 410, 83 S.Ct. 1349, 10 L.Ed.2d 448 (1963). 11 These courts have derived jurisdiction to review an in rem decision from the existence of either consent or in personam jurisdiction over a shipowner whose other contacts with the forum satisfied traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice, International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S.Ct. 154, 158, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945). When a claimant has consented to, or is otherwise subject to the court's in personam jurisdiction, these courts have suggested that due process is not violated by also finding in rem jurisdiction. Continental Grain, 364 U.S. at 22-23, 80 S.Ct. at 1472-73; Reed, 307 F.2d at 204-05; The Willamette, 70 Fed. 874 (9th Cir.1895). 12 In all these cases, of course, the res, while beyond the court's territorial jurisdiction, was owned by a party actually before the court, over whom the court already held in personam jurisdiction. In this case, both Farwest and West Coast would have us appropriate a res not only from a location beyond the court's territorial realm, but from a nonparty over whom the district court never had personal jurisdiction. We need not resolve this question since counsel at oral argument indicated that he had authority to speak for Carnation Company, the nonparty owner, and that Carnation had actual knowledge of the lien claim and had consented to in rem jurisdiction over the Barge. Alex L. Parks is an attorney at law. Parks approved and endorsed a pretrial order which says, in part: 13 On or about April 23, 1982 West Coast Charters sold the barge CERES to The Carnation Company. There will be no claim that the sale to The Carnation Company was a sale to a purchaser without notice. The Carnation Company took the barge CERES subject to the claims of liens, if any, asserted herein and West Coast Charters has agreed to indemnify and hold The Carnation Company harmless from all claims of liens, if any. This case will be tried as if the barge had not been sold to The Carnation Company. If the Court enters a judgment in rem against the barge CERES in favor of the plaintiff and plaintiff-intervenors and the judgment is not paid, the Court may enter an order for seizure of the barge CERES and foreclosures of the liens. 14 (Emphasis added). Parks endorsed the pretrial order on behalf of defendants, Barge Sea Span 241, aka Barge CERES, her tackle, gear and furnishings, in rem; West Coast Charters, Inc.; and Nichols Boat & Barge Builders, Inc. 15 The consent to in rem jurisdiction troubled us because Carnation was not a party to the proceedings. When combined with the fact that during oral argument Parks acknowledged actual notice of the lien--thus removing any due process concerns about notice--we find from the record that Carnation consented to in rem jurisdiction. The district court retained jurisdiction over the Barge throughout its proceedings, and we have jurisdiction to review its in rem judgment. 16