Opinion ID: 540154
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Satisfaction of Judgment From Vessel Release Bond

Text: 26 Point Vail Company contends that the Seafarer Trust Funds failed to properly invoke Supplemental Rule B attachment, because they failed to state under oath that Point Vail Company could not be found within the district and because they failed to obtain and serve a writ of attachment on the vessel. 6 The intervening plaintiffs Seafarers Trust Funds assert in each complaint that their claims are brought pursuant to Local Admiralty Rule 7.09. This rule, captioned INTERVENTION, states in subsection (a) that anyone having an in rem claim against a vessel or property must present that claim by way of intervening complaint, and that the United States Marshal need not re-arrest or re-attach a vessel or property already so arrested or attached. Subsection (b) of this rule states simply that any party is permitted to intervene, without leave of court, in any admiralty proceeding in which the Marshal has arrested or attached a vessel or property. It may well be that Local Rule 7.09 means that when a vessel is already in the custody of the Marshal, an intervening party need not obtain a writ of attachment. Because, however, this local rule does not displace the requirement contained in Supplemental Rule B that plaintiffs seeking the benefits of attachment (which include security for their claims) must state under oath that the defendant shall not be found within the district, we need not and do not decide whether the local rule is inconsistent with Supplemental Rule B. 27 The pleadings and various documents filed throughout this action by the Seafarers Trust Funds illustrate that its intent in bringing the action in personam against Point Vail Company and in rem against the M/V Point Vail was to obtain security for their claims. For example, in paragraph 9 of the original intervening complaint, the Seafarers Trust Funds allege that 28 [s]ince the Defendant POINT VAIL COMPANY is the owner and operator of the vessel POINT VAIL, and upon information and belief has no substantial assets within this judicial district within which to respond to the claims of the Trust Funds, Intervenor SEAFARERS TRUST FUNDS bring this action in personam against Defendant POINT VAIL COMPANY, and in rem against the vessel, and pray that the vessel be attached as surety for payment of the claims against the Defendant POINT VAIL COMPANY. 29 Nowhere in any of the pertinent pleadings and memoranda do the Seafarers Trust Funds allege that Point Vail Company could not be found within the district. The attempt to use Supplemental Rule B attachment to gain security for an in personam claim independent of its use to compel the appearance of the defendant is contrary to the primary purpose of the rule. 30 [T]here are two reasons for the procedure authorized in Supplemental Rule B: to assure a respondent's appearance, and to assure satisfaction in case the suit is successful. Polar Shipping Ltd. v. Oriental Shipping Corp., 680 F.2d 627, 637 (9th Cir.1982) (quoting Swift & Co. Packers v. Compania Columbiana del Caribe, 339 U.S. 684, 70 S.Ct. 861, 94 L.Ed. 1206 (1950)); see also Chilean Line Inc. v. United States, 344 F.2d 757, 759-60 (2d Cir.1965); Seawind Compania, S.A. v. Crescent Line, Inc., 320 F.2d 580, 581-82 (2d Cir.1963); Integrated Container Serv., Inc. v. Starlines Container Shipping, Ltd., 476 F.Supp. 119, 122 (S.D.N.Y.1979); 7A Moore's Federal Practice p B.06 at B-256 (1988). Supplemental Rule B, however, cannot be used purely for the purpose of obtaining security: The two purposes may not be separated, however, for security cannot be obtained except as an adjunct to obtaining jurisdiction. Seawind Compania, 320 F.2d at 582; quoted in Chilean Line Inc., 344 F.2d at 760. In none of the cases cited to the court or located through our independent research did a party successfully utilize Supplemental Rule B attachment to acquire security when neither a verified complaint nor an affidavit stated that the defendant was not present in the district to answer an in personam claim. Two cases present close situations, but each is distinguishable. In Cordoba Shipping Co., Ltd. v. Maro Shipping Ltd., 494 F.Supp. 183 (D.Conn.1980), the plaintiff filed an admiralty action and sought attachment under Supplemental Rule B, accompanied by the required affidavits. The defendants filed a motion to dissolve the attachment, arguing that they were subject to the court's jurisdiction and that attachment had been sought solely to secure the in personam claims. The court denied the motion, holding that the defendants' jurisdictional presence did not defeat attachment, because the plaintiff additionally had sought attachment under Rule 64 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which allows use of state prejudgment attachment procedures to secure a claim. Attachment there continued, as [t]he plaintiff ... in its complaint expressly sought 'maritime attachment pursuant to Supplemental Rule B' plus the 'remedies of attachment or garnishment provided'  by state law. Id. at 186 (emphasis in original). 31 In Staronset Shipping Ltd. v. North Star Navigation Inc., 659 F.Supp. 189 (S.D.N.Y.1987), the district court held that Supplemental Rule B was not violated when the plaintiff-shipowner seeking attachment openly admitted that its primary purpose was to obtain security against the defendant-charterer in order to satisfy claims for stevedoring services pending against the owner in another judicial district, but incurred by the charterer. The distinction between that case and the one before us lies in the fact that the literal requirements of the rule were complied with, and specifically, that the shipowner properly pled that the defendant could not be found within the district. We also note that other parties which intervened in the action involving the M/V Point Vail made the necessary allegations in their complaints to invoke attachment, and thereby gain security, whereas the Seafarers Trust Funds simply did not. 32 As noted earlier, the Seafarers Trust Funds never alleged in the verified complaints nor in any affidavit that the defendant Point Vail Company could not be found in the district. The claims they present do not constitute maritime liens against the vessel, and the Seafarers Trust Funds have conceded as much. The averments contained in their pleadings that the defendant has no assets within the district--or no substantial assets--do not satisfy the requirement set forth in Supplemental Rule B that attachment will issue only when it is sworn to that the defendant cannot be found within the district, and they are not the substantial equivalent of that requirement. Fairly stated, the Seafarers Trust Funds sought to use maritime attachment to secure an in personam claim, but failed to insert the key that unlocks that door. After Point Vail Company entered a general appearance, maritime attachment--which exists primarily to secure such appearance--could no longer properly issue, and the suit [should have proceeded] as any other maritime claim in personam. 7A Moore's Federal Practice p B.08 at B-351. 33 The Seafarers Trust Funds contend that because of Local Rule 7.09, attachment would not issue once the vessel had been arrested and was in the custody of the Marshal. By its terms, that rule applies to in rem claims; it makes no mention of in personam claims such as those of the Seafarers Trust Funds. Even if applicable to the claims in question, however, Local Rule 7.09 cannot override the requirements of Supplemental Rule B, and we specifically hold that the Seafarers Trust Funds failed to comply with those requirements by failing to state under oath that the defendant Point Vail Company could not be found within the district. Because of this failure, the benefit of obtaining security for the claims as an adjunct to obtaining personal jurisdiction over the defendant was lost once Point Vail Company submitted to the court's jurisdiction.