The Salvore

36 F.2d 712, 1930 A.M.C. 23
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedDecember 9, 1929
Docket182
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 36 F.2d 712 (The Salvore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Salvore, 36 F.2d 712, 1930 A.M.C. 23 (2d Cir. 1929).

Opinion

MANTON, C. J.

Tbe order appealed from denies appellants’ application to require appellee to dismiss certain actions brought in tbe courts of Italy for abuse of process in seizing and detaining tbe vessels of tbe appellee here and requiring a bond. *713 The citation also asked that the court find that the claims presented here in the libels filed are without foundation, but damages were requested only for abuse of process. The alternative relief here sought was to dissolve an injunction granted in limitation of liability proceedings. Rev. Stat. §§ 4282r-4287 (46 USCA §§ 182-187). The trial of the actions in Italy may involve the adjudica^ tion of the appellee’s liability for the cargo damaged.

The libels filed below were for recovery of cargo damage claimed to have resulted from the failure to remove the cargoes of the appellants from the hold of the ship Salvore while at Genoa, Italy, prior to making repairs, at which time the vessel caught fire and did damage to the cargoes. The libels filed below in December, 1926, are in personam, with a clause of foreign attachment. The marshal eould»not find the appellee in the district and seized its steamship Brenta II. He allowed the vessel to load and discharge her cargo as the appellee desired. At the request of the appellee, another vessel, later to arrive, was substituted for attachment by virtue of a stipulation between the parties. Owing to a dispute, however, as to the stipulation, the matter was called to the attention of a District Judge, and a stipulation was entered into, as suggested by him, which in part reads:

“It is further stipulated and agreed that the respondent foregoes and waives any and all claims for damages against the proctors for the libelant as to the Steamships Brenta II and Savoia and against the United States Steel Produets Company, Vacuum OR Company, S. A. I., and Bunge North American Grain Corporation, as to the Brenta II, by reason of or in connection with the seizure and attachment of the Brenta II and Savoia.”

It was subsequent to making this stipulation, and eight months after filing the libels below, that the actions in the courts of Italy, claiming damages for unlawful attachment, were instituted. Thereafter, and when the ease was at issue and on the calendar, the limitation of liabRity proceedings was instituted below.

In denying the relief petitioned for, the court held it had no power to- stay the limitation proceedings, or to compel the appeRee to cease or discontinue its actions in Italy. It held it had no power to compel compliance for such dismissal. The effect of a limited tion of liability proceedings was discussed in Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Southern Pac. Co. (The Bolikow) 273 U. S 207, 47 S. Ct. 357, 71 L. Ed. 612, where the court gave a very broad and equitable construction of the power of the admiralty court to carry out its purpose to faeRitate the settlement of the whole controversy over such losses as are comprehended within the admiralty jurisdiction and said that “all the ease with which rights can be adjusted in equity is intended to be given to the proceeding. It is the administration of equity in an admiralty court. Dowdell v. United States District Court (C. C. A.) 139 F. 444, 445. The proceeding partakes in a way of the features of a bRl to enjoin a multiplicity of suits, a bRl in the nature of an interpleader, and a creditor’s bRl. It looks to a complete and just disposition of a many cornered controversy. * * * ”

The limitation proceeding was an appeal to a court of admiralty, which is a court of equity, invoking the aid of the court, and the appellee, seeking equity, should wRlingly do equity, if it wants the benefit of avoiding a multiplicity of suits and limiting its liabRity, for it in effect asks for a complete and just disposition of the “many-cornered controversy” which has arisen by the shipment of appellants’ cargoes. It must be willing to bring in aU the controversies in the limita^ tion proceedings, for it has invoked the court’s aid.

We do not say what the defense may be based upon the stipulation which the parties have entered into, and to which we have referred; but, under all the circumstances, we do say its petition to proceed in limitation of liabRity proceeding should not have been permitted by the court below unless and until the appeRee agreed to litigate all the controversies, including the claims of the alleged unlawful attachment. The court below had the power to dissolve the ex parte' injunction granted in limitation, which 'restrained the appeUants’ suits. The Bolikow, supra; The Idaho, Fed. Cas. No. 6,996. This'power is referred to in The Bolikow, where the court said: , .

“If Congress has constitutional power to gather into the admiralty court all claimants against. the vessel and its owner, whetjier their claims are strictly in admiralty or not, as this court has clearly held, it necessarily follows, as incidental to that power, that it may furnish a complete remedy for the satisfaction of those claims by distribution of the res, and by judgments in personam for deficiencies against the owner, if not released by virtue of the statute.”

*714 Moreover, the court said:

“But this limitation of liability proceeding differs from the ordinary admiralty suit, in that, by reason of the statute and rules, the court of admiralty has power * * * to do what is exceptional in a court of admiralty —to grant an injunction, and by such injunction bring litigants, who do not have claims which are strictly admiralty claims, into the admiralty court. Benedict on Admiralty (5th Ed.) § 70, note 97. There necessarily inheres, therefore, in the character of the limitation of liability proceeding in reference to such nonadmiralty claims, the jurisdiction to fulfill the obligation to do equitable justice to such claimants by furnishing them a complete remedy.”

Limitation of liability proceedings do not put an end to the libels filed and the proceedings had in. the court before the institution of the limitation proceeding suit. Huasteca Petroleum Co. v. Cia de Navegacao Lloyd Brasileiro (The Pelotas) 297 F. 318 (D. C.).

The court below having obtained prior jurisdiction of the parties, and the appellee having sought that same jurisdiction in its limitation proceedings, unquestionably gave the court the power to deal with the appellee before it as equity and justice requñed. It could have refused the injunction in the limitation proceedings, or it could have granted the injunction only upon condition that the appellee willingly litigated all the controversies arising, including the subject-matter of the claims filed in the Italian actions. The court could not restrain the trial in the Italian courts, but it could restrain or stay the limitation proceedings within, its jurisdiction.

The court first securing jurisdiction has the authority and power of enjoining the parties to the litigation from proceeding in another jurisdiction. And the court has an undoubted authority to control all persons and things within its own territorial limits. Cole v. Cunningham, 133 U. S. 119, 10 S. Ct. 269, 33 L. Ed. 538; Gage v. Riverside Trust Co. (C. C.) 86 F. 999.

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Bluebook (online)
36 F.2d 712, 1930 A.M.C. 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-salvore-ca2-1929.