Court Opinion

ID: 9472383
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:58:33.80344+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:54.305045
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The majority asserts that this is an inappropriate case — at least in its present pos*40ture — to reexamine the first and fundamental question: Did the district court sitting in admiralty have the power to issue the mandatory injunction directing the Karana Line to release its attachment of the STEEL TRANSPORTER owned by the Eddie Steamship Company?
As predicate of its stance, the majority, after referring to the traditional idea that admiralty courts have no injunctive powers (The Elipse, 135 U.S. 599, 10 S.Ct. 873, 34 L.Ed. 269 (1890)), states that this proscription, though eroded by later cases, remains the underlying approach of this court. See New York State Waterways Ass’n, Inc. v. Diamond, 469 F.2d 419, 421 n. 2 (2d Cir. 1972) (“[T]he power of an admiralty court to grant injunctive relief remains severely circumscribed.”).
The majority then lists a number of alleged impediments that make this an inappropriate case for a definitive ruling on the jurisdictional question. Those impediments, however, do not speak to the jurisdictional question; rather, they address a different question: whether the district court, given the fact that it had injunctive powers, properly exercised that power in light of the circumstances described by the majority. I believe the majority has misapprehended 'these circumstances. Rather than waiting for an “appropriate case for the Court to change the law of the Circuit as to the injunctive powers of the district court sitting in admiralty,” we should change the law of the circuit now because the question is ripe for resolution.
It is my further belief that the district court is clothed with the power to issue the injunction from which this appeal is taken. As support for that view, I adopt the reasoning of the First Circuit in Pino v. Protection Maritime Insurance Co., 599 F.2d 10 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 900, 100 S.Ct. 210, 62 L.Ed.2d 136 (1979), and that of the Fifth Circuit in Levis v. S.S. Baune, 534 F.2d 1115 (5th Cir.1976). (The rationales of the two circuits are substantially identical.)
As to the other issues, I would hold that the district court exercised in personam jurisdiction over the defendant, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Lecopulos, 553 F.2d 842 (2d Cir.1977), and the district court did not abuse its discretion when it entered the injunctive order under the facts of this case. In my opinion, none of the circumstances alluded to by the majority for consideration on remand stands in the way of the grant of the injunction.
I would affirm.