Sewerage & Water Board v. The Cumulus

172 F.2d 102, 1949 A.M.C. 850
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 1, 1949
DocketNo. 12414
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 172 F.2d 102 (Sewerage & Water Board v. The Cumulus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sewerage & Water Board v. The Cumulus, 172 F.2d 102, 1949 A.M.C. 850 (5th Cir. 1949).

Opinion

LEE, Circuit Judge.

The appellant, a municipal corporation, as plaintiff below, brought suit' in rem against the steamship Cumulus, in the District Court for the Parish of Orleans, La., to recover $15,000 for damages alleged to have been sustained through negligence bn the part of the crew when the anchor of the ship became entangled in and severed the Water Board’s power cable lines extending across the Mississippi River from Canal Street, in New Orleans, on the east side to Algiers on the west side. The case was removed to the federal court by the Netherlands 'Government, as owner of the ship, and-that court sustained a motion to dismiss on the grounds: (1) that, if the proceedings were brought under article 3659 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes, the attachment which had issued should be dissolved because plaintiff had failed to post bond in compliance with the requirements of that act; (2) that, if the proceedings were prosecuted under Act No. 220 of the Louisiana Legislature of 1932, a motion to dissolve the attachment should be sustained because (a) that statute did not provide for an in rem proceeding, and (b) it did not provide for suit against an unknown defendant, as was the case here, (c) the plaintiff did not prove affirmatively that the defendant was a nonresident of the State, and (d) the action of the sheriff in seizing the ship under a writ directing him to seize and take into his possession the goods and chattels, lands and tenements, rights and moneys, effects and credits of the ship was entirely without legal justification; and (3) that the attempt to convert the action into an action in personam was wholly ineffective since the Netherlands Government was not before the court. From the judgment dismissing the suit, this appeal was prosecuted. The only question before us is the correctness of the ruling complained of.

In its petition filed in the State court, the plaintiff alleged that the steamship Cumulus was a seagoing vessel, owned by unknown nonresidents of Louisiana, and was . at the time of filing moored in the Mississippi River within the limits of the City 'of New Orleans; that it had caused damage to plaintiff in the sum of $15,000; that its departure from the city was imminent; and that to protect the petitioner a writ of attachment was necessary. It prayed that a writ of attachment issue upon the plaintiff’s furnishing bond with solvent surety in the amount fixed by law, corn-leans to seize and attach the ship and to manding the sheriff of the Parish of Or-hold her subject to the further orders of the court; and for judgment against the ship, its owners, or its duly accredited agents in the sum of $15,000, with legal interest from judicial demand, with recognition of petitioner’s lien and privilege resulting from the attachment. Upon presentation, by order of the State court the writ of attachment was issued, and the sheriff executed the writ by taking physical possession of the ship.1 Appearing specially and with full reservation of all defenses, the Netherlands Government, represented by its Ministry of Traffic, as owner, was permitted to bond the attachment, subject to the reservation of all exceptions to the jurisdiction of the court and to the reservation of sovereign immunity. Before the ship sailed, depositions of the captain, the chief officer, and the second officer of the steamship were taken under agreement that the making of those depositions did not constitute a general appearance and was without prejudice to defenses and objections which were avail[105]*105able to the Netherlands Government. Three days thereafter the .plaintiff filed a supplemental and amended petition making ♦he States Marine Corporation, as owner of the steamship Empire State, a party to the suit. In this petition, the plaintiff renewed all of the pertinent allegations of its original petition and prayed for judgment against the State Marine Corporation and the Steamship Cumulus and its owners, in solido.3 After due notice, the States Marine Corporation and the Netherlands Government filed a joint petition for removal to the federal court, and the removal order thus secured was made subject to the Netherlands Government’s reservations of jurisdictional defenses and particularly, but not exclusively, to its defense of sovereign immunity. When the suit was docketed in the federal court, defendants moved to dismiss, again with the reservation that the motion was made without entering a general appearance. Before the motion was heard, the plaintiff filed a second supplemental petition, praying for judgment against the ship Cumulus and the Netherlands Government, its owner, and for recognition and enforcement against the ship of its lien and privileges resulting from the attachment. After service of this petition,2 a new motion to dismiss was filed. It set out as grounds therefor that the court lacked jurisdiction and. that there was both insufficiency of process and insufficiency of service of process. After a hearing, the motion was sustained.

In this court, the appellee moves to dismiss the appeal on the ground- that, because the plaintiff prosecuted its appeal without a supersedeas, the judgment of the court below dissolved the attachment, and consequently the bond furnished for the release of the ship terminated, and the principal and surety thereon were thereafter relieved of all further liability; therefore, appellee urges, the question before the court is moot. Appellant meets this motion by an application to this court for permission to file a supersedeas bond, asking that the court fix the amount.

The motion to dismiss and the application for permission to give a supersedeas bond were heard along with the merits. Under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, rules 62(d) and 73(e), 28 U.S.C.A.,, relied on by appellant, this court clearly has the power to fix the amount of the supersedeas bond and to permit it to be filed at any time prior to final' judgment, but we see no need to do either: for, in our opinion, the action of the court below in dissolving the attachment and dismissing the suit was clearly correct.

In its brief arid in argument, appellant contends that its proceeding is in rem and pursuant to authority given by Act No. 220 of the Legislature of Louisiana for 1932. That act provides that “in all suits * * * in which the demand is for a money judgment and the defendant is a non-resident of this State * * * whatever may be the nature, character or origin of the plaintiff’s claim, the plaintiff shall have the right to sue out a writ of attachment against the defendant’s property, whether the claim be for a sum certain or for an uncertain amount, .and whether the claim be liquidated or unliquidated * * * provided that * * * the defendant has [not] a duly appointed agent of the State of Louisiana upon whom service of process may be made.” It will be noted that the act provides for suit agaihst a nonresident defendant by seizure under writ of attachment of the nonresident defendant’s property. In such a suit, a writ of attáchment operates only upon the property seized and stands in the place of citation. Burgin Bros. & McCane v. Barker Baking Co., 152 La. 1075, 95 So. 227; Pugh v. Flannery, 151 La. 1063, 92 So. 699. The writ is the foundation of jurisdiction which 'cannot be acquired except under the letter of the law allowing process. For the court to be vested with jurisdiction over the nonresident defendant in the absence of personal service, two [106]

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Bluebook (online)
172 F.2d 102, 1949 A.M.C. 850, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sewerage-water-board-v-the-cumulus-ca5-1949.