Grand Banks Fishing Co. v. Styron, 93.

• Decision Date: 27 August 1953
• Docket Number: No. 93.,93.
• Citation: 114 F. Supp. 1
• Parties: GRAND BANKS FISHING CO., Inc. v. STYRON.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maine

114 F. Supp. 1

GRAND BANKS FISHING CO., Inc. v. STYRON.

No. 93.

United States District Court D. Maine, S. D.

August 27, 1953.

Nathan W. Thompson, Benjamin Thompson, Portland, Me., for libellant.

Leon V. Walker, Portland, Me., Frank M. Coffin, Lewiston, Me., for respondent.

CLIFFORD, District Judge.

This is a libel of Grand Banks Fishing Company, Inc., formerly Schooner Governor Al Smith, Inc., a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and having a principal place of business at Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and said Commonwealth, against Roland L. Styron, of Oriental or Hobucken, in the District of North Carolina.

The libel alleges that on October 17, 1949, the libellant entered into a written contract with the respondent by the terms of which respondent agreed to sell to the libellant the fishing vessel Caracara; that at the time of the signing of said contract, the said vessel was at sea so that the libellant did not have an opportunity to survey the vessel prior to the time of purchase; that in consideration of the libellant completing said purchase prior to a competent survey the respondent agreed in said contract that said vessel, her machinery and equipment, was free from any major defect; that libellant relied upon said warranty and on October 17, 1949, while said vessel was at sea, paid to the respondent the full purchase price of $57,000 and on October 24, 1949, received a bill of sale for said vessel; that when the vessel returned to port the libellant had said vessel hauled on a marine railway and surveyed; that said survey disclosed that there were many defects in the vessel's hull, machinery and equipment; that the cost of making the necessary repairs to said vessel so as to put her in the condition in which she was represented to be by the respondent was in the sum of $17,000; that in addition thereto the libellant lost the use of said vessel for a period of four months of the fishing season; that libellant's total loss was in the sum of $27,000 and libellant requests judgment against the respondent in the sum of $30,000.

On or about October 19, 1950, the libellant filed this action against the respondent in personam and with a clause of foreign attachment and respondent's vessel Courier was attached in response to the monition issued by the Clerk.

The libellant also asserts that because of the questionable jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court over a contract for the purchase and sale of a vessel, it brought another action against the respondent in the Superior Court for Cumberland County, State of Maine, alleging in its writ, substantially what it does in the libel now before this Court.

In the admiralty action the respondent filed its special appearance and a plea denying the jurisdiction of this Court, and in the action of the State Court, with which this Court is, of course, not concerned, the defendant filed a plea of abatement, on the grounds that there were two actions pending at the same time, for the same cause.

The respondent contends that the contract with which this case is concerned is a contract of sale, non-maritime in nature, and that this Court, as a court of admiralty, has no jurisdiction to hear and determine the questions arising under the contract.

The libellant has submitted this case solely on the question of jurisdiction.

The question to be determined by this Court is whether the contract, which, as alleged, flowed from a breach of warranty stated in said contract, is maritime or non-maritime in nature.

As stated in Benedict on Admiralty (6th Ed.) Vol. 1, page 130, Sec. 64:

"It is not always easy to determine what is a maritime Contract. The dividing lines between causes maritime and non-maritime is not always strongly marked. It is believed that a sure guide in matters of contract is to be found in the relation which the cause of action has to a ship, the great agent of Maritime enterprize, and to the sea as a highway of commerce. A contract relating to a ship in its use as such or to commerce on navigable waters is subject to the Maritime Law and the case is one of Admiralty and Maritime jurisdiction whether the contract is to be performed on land or water."

In The Ada, 2 Cir., 1918, 250 F....