Court Opinion

ID: 9642143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:49:52.079324+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:43.489345
License: Public Domain

CAMPBELL, District Judge
(dissenting) . I find myself unable to concur.
Assuming that the agreement made by Bonnasse, dated February 11, 1918, was. a maritime obligation, that is not controlling.
The obligation of La Banque Privée, as alleged in the libel, arises under the agreement with Bonnasse of September, 1921, which provided that La Banque Privée purchased all the assets and assumed all the liabilities of the banking business of La Banque Bonnasse.
The liabilities of a banking business obviously were in small part maritime, and it must be assumed that by the use of the words “all liabilities” the parties to that agreement intended to cover more than the liability of La Banque Bonnasse to the libelant, and that said agreement was not solely for the benefit of the libelant.
It therefore follows that the agreement between La Banque Bonnasse and La Banque Privée was not wholly maritime, and for that reason was not enforceable in the admiralty. The Ada (C. C. A.) 250 F. 194; The Pennsylvania (C. C. A.) 154 F. 9; Fox v. Patton (D. C.) 22 F. 746; The Centurion, Fed. Cas. No. 2,554; Plummer v. Webb, Fed. Cas. No. 11,-233; Insurance Co. v. Dunham, 11 Wall. 1, 35, 20 L. Ed. 90; Pacific Surety Co. v. Leath-am & Smith T. & W. Co. (C. C. A.) 151 F. 440; Eadie v. North Pac. S. S. Co. (D. C.) 217 F. 662.
The promise of La Banque Privée to pay all the debts of La Banque Bonnasse, which included that of the libelant, was not for that reason maritime but a new contract with La Banque Bonnasse, enforceable, if at all, by the libelant only in a court of law or in equity, and therefore the District Court, as a court of admiralty, was without jurisdiction to enter any decree in the action against La Banque Privée or the garnishee appellant.