Opinion ID: 697257
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether an In Rem Judgment Bars Subsequent In Personam Suits

Text: 13 Empresa next asserts that since the prior judgment was entered against the Vessel in rem, that judgment bars any subsequent in personam claim. Empresa bases this argument on the distinction between in rem and in personam jurisdiction in admiralty law. Central Hudson argued below, and the district court agreed, that the 1966 Amendments to the Admiralty Rules specifically permit separate in rem and in personam actions. We concur. 14 Empresa relies on three prior decisions in this Circuit to support its argument that a litigant cannot pursue separate in rem and in personam claims regarding the same injury in sequential suits: Burns Bros. v. Central Railroad, 202 F.2d 910 (2d Cir.1953); Sullivan v. Nitrate Producers' S.S. Co., 262 F. 371 (2d Cir.1919); and Bailey v. Sundberg, 49 F. 583 (2d Cir.1892), cert. denied, 154 U.S. 494, 14 S.Ct. 1142, 38 L.Ed. 1078 (1894). Burns Bros. involved a plaintiff who lost a previous decision in personam against the owner of a carfloat (although the plaintiff won against the co-defendant carfloat operator) following a collision between the carfloat and the plaintiff's barge, and who subsequently filed an action in rem against the carfloat. Judge Learned Hand, after reviewing the Sullivan and Bailey decisions, concluded that a decree in rem is a bar to a suit in personam, and we cannot see why the rule should not work both ways. Burns Bros., 202 F.2d at 913. The Court then found: 15 When the plaintiff has two alternative remedies available to him upon the same cause of action, he may not reserve one and sue upon the other, and a judgment for the defendant upon one will be a bar to a later suit upon the other; but obviously this rule ought not to apply when at the time of the first action only one of the two remedies was available to the plaintiff.... If we regard the cause of action at bar as the same as that in the first suit, as we must, the present libel in rem was an alternative remedy to the libel in personam, so that this appeal comes down to whether a libel in rem was available to Burns Bros. in the first suit, since, if it was, it could have been joined with the libel in personam under the 14th Admiralty Rule [now Rule C(1)(b) of the Supplemental Rules]. 16 Id. 17 Judge Hand's discussion raises several points pertinent to the instant appeal. We note initially that Burns Bros. did not concern a suit filed to collect damages established by a prior judgment, but involved a suit to establish liability and damages anew. Burns Bros. thus does not govern a suit essentially seeking collection of an unpaid portion of a judgment against a joint tortfeasor. See generally Grant Gilmore & Charles L. Black, Jr., The Law of Admiralty Sec. 9-17, at 614 n. 73 (2d ed. 1975) (A plaintiff who has recovered a judgment in an in rem action which remains in part unsatisfied may proceed against the owner in personam to recover the deficiency.). 18 Second, as the district court in the instant case noted, the Supplemental Rules do not require a party to bring in rem and in personam claims in the same action. Rule C(1)(b) of the Supplemental Rules specifically provides that a party who may proceed in rem may also, or in the alternative, proceed in personam against any person who may be liable. (emphasis added). Thus Central Hudson is barred from bringing its in personam claim against Empresa, if at all, by the doctrine of res judicata and not by the Admiralty Rules, a conclusion supported by Judge Hand's holding in Burns Bros. See 202 F.2d at 912-13. Indeed, while Central Hudson and the district court both read Rule C(1)(b) to abrogate the prior doctrine set forth in Burns Bros., we decline to do so. Instead, Burns Bros. and its predecessors should be read simply to apply res judicata principles to successive in rem and in personam actions, a holding with which Rule C(1)(b) is not inconsistent. 2 19 Finally, the 1966 Amendments to the Admiralty Rules did not affect the previously existing right of plaintiffs to file separate or successive in rem and in personam actions. As reflected in the Advisory Committee Notes to the 1966 Amendments, the Amendments were not intended to change prior law: 20 The main concern of Admiralty Rules 13-18 [now Supplemental Rule E] was with the question whether certain actions might be brought in rem or also, or in the alternative, in personam. Essentially, therefore, these rules deal with questions of substantive law, for in general an action in rem may be brought to enforce any maritime lien, and no action in personam may be brought when the substantive law imposes no personal liability. 21 Supplemental Rule C(1) advisory committee's note (emphasis added). The fact that the 1966 Amendments did not affect in rem and in personam filings is further reflected in the case law. Compare United States v. Matson Nav. Co., 201 F.2d 610, 618 (9th Cir.1953) (pre-Amendment case holding that where causes of action arose from single collision, claimant could proceed in rem against ship and in personam against owners and masters), with Belcher Co. v. M/V MARATHA MARINER, 724 F.2d 1161, 1163 (5th Cir.1984) (post-Amendment case holding that [u]nder the admiralty law of the United States, in personam and in rem actions may arise from the same claim, and may be brought separately or in the same suit). Accordingly, we find that this in personam action is barred by the in rem judgment, if at all, only by the doctrine of res judicata, to which we now turn.