Opinion ID: 752943
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preliminary Contract Doctrine

Text: 20 Plaintiff's first cause of action is breach of contract--it seeks to recover a lost commission. We first stated that admiralty jurisdiction does not extend to a charter brokerage contract in 1898. See The Harvey and Henry, 86 F. at 657. Since then, that principle continued to be applied among the district courts in this Circuit. For example, Boyd holds that admiralty jurisdiction does not extend to a charter broker's claim for commissions from the vessel owner for whom it arranged a charter. The court reasoned that acting as a chartering broker is a preliminary matter and as such may not support admiralty jurisdiction. Boyd, 709 F.Supp. at 79. Plaintiff presents an identical claim. If The Harvey and Henry and Boyd were to remain good law after Exxon, they would apply to bar this claim from maritime jurisdiction.