Blamberg Bros v. United States
| Decision Date | 02 January 1923 |
| Docket Number | No. 165,165 |
| Citation | 260 U.S. 452,43 S.Ct. 179,67 L.Ed. 346 |
| Parties | BLAMBERG BROS. v. UNITED STATES |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. D. Roger Englar and Harold V. Amberg, both of New York City, for appellant.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 453-456 intentionally omitted] Mr. Solicitor General Beck, of Washington, D. C., for the United states.
This is an appeal from the District Court of Maryland on a question of jurisdiction duly certified by the District Judge.
The appellant, a corporation of Maryland, February 26, 1921, filed a libel in personam against the United States under the suits in Admiralty Act, approved March 9, 1920 (41 Stat. 525). The libel alleged that on October 6, 1920, the libelant had shipped 1,500 bags of corn from Baltimore to Havana, Cuba, to its own order, upon the barge Catskill, that the corn had never been delivered in accordance with the terms of the bills of lading, and that due to the delay the corn had greatly deteriorated in value, whereby libelant had been damaged in the sum of $15,000. The libel contained this averment:
'Third, That said barge Catskill is now, or will be, during the pendency of process hereunder, within this district and within the jurisdiction of this honorable court.'
The United States made answer April 22, 1921, through the district attorney. It admitted that it was the qualified owner of the Catskill, but denied that it was, or had ever been, in charge of the operation of the barge. It alleged that it entered into a contract for the sale of the barge July 26, 1920, for $60,000, $6,000 in cash and the balance in monthly installments of $3,000, that the vendee had defaulted in all the monthly payments, that the barge was delivered to the vendee June 30, 1920, and the United States had no control over her management or operation, and did not make the contract of affreightment described in the libel. In answer to the third paragraph of the libel the respondent alleged that it was advised that the barge was in Havana and had no knowledge when it would arrive in the jurisdiction of the court. On May 3, 1921, having obtained leave of court, the United States as respondent filed a suggestion of want of jurisdiction in which it averred positively that the barge was then in the port of Havana, Cuba, where it had been libeled in the sum of $3,725 for wage claims. It turther averred that libels in personam had been filed against it in three other District Courts of the United States for claims aggregating a sum in excess of the value of the barge, which was alleged not to exceed $50,000. The suggestion concludes that the respondent cannot be proceeded against by a libel in personam, or by a libel in the nature of an in rem proceeding as provided for by the Suits in Admiralty Act, for the reason that at the time of filing the libel, and at all times thereafter the barge Catskill was and had been at the port of Havana, Cuba, and without the jurisdiction of the court. The libelant answering the suggestion alleged that, although under the facts as alleged, no direct personal liability arose against the respondent under the general law, yet under the Suits in Admiralty Act, a right to bring a libel in personam was created as a substitute for an ordinary libel in rem, and that the...
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...or an in personam liability would have arisen on the same facts as against a private owner. Blamberg Brothers v. United States, 260 U.S. 452, 458-59, 43 S.Ct. 179, 180-81, 67 L.Ed. 346 (1923). The SIAA encompassed suits involving vessels owned by, in the possession of, or operated by or for......
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