Court Opinion

ID: 9419582
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:50:19.357212+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:19.174058
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Frankfurter,
concurring.
In Berizzi Bros. Co. v. The Pesaro, 271 U. S. 562, this Court held for the first time that “merchant ships owned and operated by a foreign government have the same immunity that warships have.” It did so not because the *39Department of State by appropriate suggestion or through its established policy had indicated that due regard for our international relations counseled such an abnegation of jurisdiction over government-owned merchantmen. On the contrary. In answer to an inquiry by Judge Mack, before whom the Pesaro’s claim to immunity was first raised, the Department of State took this position: “It is the view of the Department that government-owned merchant vessels or vessels under requisition of governments whose flag they fly employed in commerce should not be regarded as entitled to the immunities accorded public vessels of war. The Department has not claimed immunity for American vessels of this character.” The Pesaro, 277 F. 473,479-480, note 3; and see 2 Hackworth, Digest of International Law, pp. 429-430, 438-439. Thus, in Berizzi Bros. Co. v. The Pesaro, supra, this Court felt free to reject the State Department’s views on international policy and to formulate its own judgment on what wise international relations demanded. The Court now seems to indicate, however, that when, upon the seizure of a vessel of a foreign government, sovereign immunity is claimed, the issue is whether the vessel “was of a character and operated under conditions entitling it to the immunity in conformity with the principles accepted by the department of the government charged with the conduct of our foreign relations.”
If this be an implied recession from the decision in Berizzi Bros. Co. v. The Pesaro, I heartily welcome it. Adjudication should not borrow trouble by worrying about a case not calling for decision. It is for me not borrowing trouble to raise the relation of the Pesaro decision to the situation now before the Court. I appreciate that the disposition of the present case turns on the want of possession by the Republic of Mexico. My difficulty is that “possession” is too tenuous a distinction on the basis of which to differentiate between foreign government-*40owned vessels engaged merely in trade that are immune from suit and those that are not. Possession, actual or constructive, is a legal concept full of pitfalls. Even where only private interests are involved the determination of possession, as bankruptcy cases, for instance, abundantly prove, engenders much confusion and conflict. Ascertainment of what constitutes possession or where it is, is too subtle and precarious a task for transfer to a field in which international interests and susceptibilities are involved.
If the Republic of Mexico now saw fit to put one junior naval officer on merchantmen which it owns but are operated by a private agency under arrangements giving that Government a financial interest in the venture, it would, I should suppose, be embarrassing to find that Mexico herself did not intend to be in possession of such ships. And, certainly, the terms of the financial arrangement by which the commercial enterprise before the Court is carried on can readily be varied without much change in substance to manifest a relation to the ship by Mexico which could not easily be deemed to disclose a want of possession by Mexico.
The fact of the matter is that the result in Berizzi Bros. Co. v. The Pesaro, supra, was reached without submission by the Department of State of its relevant policies in the conduct of our foreign relations and largely on the basis of considerations which have steadily lost whatever validity they may then have had. Compare the overruling of The Thomas Jefferson, 10 Wheat. 428 (1825), by The Genesee Chief, 12 How. 443 (1851). The views of our State Department against immunity for commercial ships owned by foreign governments have been strongly supported by international conferences, some held after the decision in the Pesaro case. See Lord Maugham in Compania Naviera Vascongado v. The Cristina [1938] A. C. 485, 521-523. But the real change has been the enor*41mous growth, particularly in recent years, of “ordinary merchandising” activity by governments. See The Western Maid, 257 U. S. 419, 432. Lord Maugham in the Cristina thus put the matter:
“Half a century ago foreign Governments very seldom embarked in trade with ordinary ships, though they not infrequently owned vessels destined for public uses, and in particular hospital vessels, supply ships and surveying or exploring vessels. These were doubtless very strong reasons for extending the privilege long possessed by ships of war to public ships of the nature mentioned; but there has been a very large development of State-owned commercial ships since the Great War, and the question whether the immunity should continue to be given to ordinary trading ships has become acute. Is it consistent with sovereign dignity to acquire a tramp steamer and to compete with ordinary shippers and ship-owners in the markets of the world? Doing so, is it consistent to set up the immunity of a sovereign if, owing to the want of skill of captain and crew, serious damage is caused to the ship of another country? Is it also consistent to refuse to permit proceedings to enforce a right of salvage in respect of services rendered, perhaps at great risk, by the vessel of another country?” [1938] A. C. 485, 521-522.
And so, sensible as I am of the weight to which the decision in the Pesaro is entitled, its implications in the light of the important developments in the international scene that twenty years have brought call for its reconsideration. The Department of State, in acting upon views such as those expressed by Lord Maugham, should no longer be embarrassed by having the decision in the Pesaro remain unquestioned, and the lower courts should be relieved from the duty of drawing distinctions that are too nice to draw.
It is my view, in short, that courts should not disclaim jurisdiction which otherwise belongs to them in relation *42to vessels owned by foreign governments however operated except when “the department of the government charged with the conduct of our foreign relations,” or of course Congress, explicitly asserts that the proper conduct of these relations calls for judicial abstention. Thereby responsibility for the conduct of our foreign relations will be placed where power lies. And unless constrained by the established policy of our State Department, courts will best discharge their responsibility by enforcement of the regular judicial processes.
Mr. Justice Black joins in this opinion.