Langnes v. Green

• Citation: 51 S.Ct. 243,75 L.Ed. 520,282 U.S. 531
• Decision Date: 24 February 1931
• Docket Number: No. 38,38
• Parties: LANGNES v. GREEN
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

282 U.S. 531

51 S.Ct. 243

75 L.Ed. 520

LANGNES

v GREEN.

No. 38.

Argued Jan. 7, 8, 1931.

Decided Feb. 24, 1931.

Messrs. Robert E. Bronson and H. B. Jones, both of Seattle, Wash., for petitioner.

Messrs. Winter S. Martin and Samuel B. Bassett, both of Seattle, Wash., for respondent.

Mr. Justice SUTHERLAND delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner, as sole owner of the fishing vessel Aloha, on February 24, 1928, brought a proceeding in the federal District Court for the Western District of Washington, praying a limitation of liability under Rev. St. §§ 4283, 4284, 4285 (U. S. C. title 46, §§ 183, 184, 185 (46 USCA §§ 183-185)), which are copied in the margin.¹ It was stipulated by the parties that the vessel was of no greater value than the sum of $5,000. After setting forth that petitioner was the sole owner of the vessel, and that the vessel was seaworthy in all respects, the petition alleged, among other things, that the respondent on October 11, 1927, had commenced an action in a superior court of the state of Washington against petitioner to recover damages in the sum of $25,000 for personal injuries suffered while employed upon said vessel. The petition for a limitation of liability was filed four months later while that action was pending, and, it is said and not denied, within two days before the date set for the trial in the state court. Following the filing of the petition, the federal District Court issued an order restraining further proceedings in the state court, and a monition to all claimants to present their claims within a time fixed. The respondent, in response to the monition, filed his claim in the amount of $25,000 for damages resulting from the personal injuries referred to above. No other claim was filed.

Thereupon respondent moved to dissolve the restraining order upon the ground that the state court had jurisdiction of the cause; that there was only one possible claimant and one owner; and that petitioner, therefore, might claim and obtain the advantage and benefit of the limitation of liability statute by proper pleading in the action pending in the state court. This motion the District Court denied, and the cause in respect of respondent's claim was tried. Upon the hearing, the District Court determined that it should first inquire whether there was any liability, and, if there was, then, whether it should be limited; and, at the conclusion of respondent's evidence without taking evidence on the part of petitioner, the court held that there was no liability, and entered a decree accordingly. 32 F.(2d) 284. Respondent appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals; and that court reversed the decree and remanded the case to the District Court, with directions to dismiss it for want of jurisdiction. 35 F.(2d) 447.

In the Court of Appeals, the decree was assailed upon the grounds (1) that, there being but one possible claim and one owner, the shipowner should have sought his remedy for a limitation of liability by proper pleading in the state court; and (2) that the record disclosed the privity and knowledge of the owner in respect of the matters and things by which the injury to respondent resulted. The court rejected the first contention upon the authority of White v. Island Transportation Co., 233 U. S. 346, 34 S. Ct. 589, 58 L. Ed. 993; but sustained the second, holding that the pleadings and evidence disclosed that the injury complained of was occasioned with the privity and knowledge of the shipowner, and consequently the District Court was without jurisdiction.

We are of opinion that the second contention, upon which the decree below was predicated, did not present a jurisdictional question. The District Court had jurisdiction to pass upon the sufficiency of the pleadings and to decide the question upon the evidence; and a determination thereof either way, whether right or wrong, would have been a determination by that court upon the merits in the proper exercise of its jurisdiction. Binderup v. Pathe Exchange, 263 U. S. 291, 44 S. Ct. 96, 68 L. Ed. 308, and cases cited; Moore v. N. Y. Cotton Exchange, 270 U. S. 593, 608, 46 S. Ct. 367, 70 L. Ed. 750, 45 A. L. R. 1370. In the Binderup Case the rule was stated as follows (page 305 of 263 U. S., 44 S. Ct. 96, 98):

'Jurisdiction is the power to decide a justiciable controversy, and includes questions of law as well as of fact. A complaint, setting forth a substantial claim under a federal statute presents a case within the jurisdiction of the court as a federal court, and this jurisdiction cannot be made to stand or fall upon the way the court may chance to decide an issue as to the legal sufficiency of the facts alleged any more than upon the way it may decide as to the legal sufficiency of the facts proven. Its decision either way upon either question is predicated upon the existence of jurisdiction, not upon the absence of it. Jurisdiction, as distinguished from merits, is wanting only where the claim set forth in the complaint is so unsubstantial as to the frivolous, or, in other words, is plainly without color of merit. (Citing cases.) In that event the claim of federal right under the statute, is a mere pretense and, in effect, is no claim at all.'

But we deem it unnecessary to consider the second contention further, since the conclusion to which we have come rests upon the first contention, in respect of which, for reasons presently to be stated, we are of opinion both courts below were in error.

The preliminary objection is urged by petitioner that, since the decision below upon this point was against respondent and he has not applied for certiorari, the point is not open here for consideration; but the objection is without merit, as a brief review of the decisions of this court will disclose.

In Irvine v. The Hesper, 122 U. S. 256, 266, 7 S. Ct. 1177, 30 L. Ed. 1175, the rule was announced without qualification that an appeal in admiralty from the District Court to the Circuit Court vacated the decree of the former and opened the case for a trial de novo in the latter court. At page 267 of 122 U. S., 7 S. Ct. 1177, 1182, the court said:

'We do not think that the fact that the claimants did not appeal from the decree of the district court alters the rule. When the libelants appealed, they did so in view of the rule, and took the risk of the result of a trial of the case de novo. The whole case was opened by their appeal, as much as it would have been if both parties had appealed, or if the appeal had been taken only by the claimants.'

In Reid v. Fargo, 241 U. S. 544, 548, 36 S. Ct. 712, 60 L. Ed. 1156, in an opinion by Mr. Chief Justice White, this conclusion was reaffirmed; and attention was called to the fact that a full and convincing review of the authorities on the subject was contained in the opinion of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Munson S. S. Line v. Miramar S. S. Co., 167 F. 960. In the more recent case of Standard Oil Co. v. So. Pacific Co., 268 U. S. 146, 155, 45 S. Ct. 465, 466, 69 L. Ed. 890, the rule was again stated in these words:

'On appeal in admiralty, there is a trial de novo. The whole case was opened in the Circuit Court of Appeals by the appeal of the Southern Pacific Company, as much as it would have been if the Director General had also appealed.'

The question then arises: What is the scope of inquiry in this court when the case is brought up by certiorari from the Circuit Court of Appeals? It has been decided that upon writ of error from an intermediate appellate tribunal we are not limited to a consideration of the points raised by the plaintiff, but 'must enter the judgment which should have been rendered by the court below on the record then before it.' Baker v. Warner, 231 U. S. 588, 593, 34 S. Ct. 175, 177, 58 L. Ed. 384. And in Delk v. St. Louis & San Francisco R. R., 220 U. S. 580, 588, 31 S. Ct. 617, 55 L. Ed. 590, following Lutcher & Moore Lumber Co. v. Knight, 217 U. S. 257, 267, 30 S. Ct. 505, 54 L. Ed. 757, it was held that on certiorari, likewise, the entire record is before this court with power to review the action of the Court of Appeals and direct such disposition of the case as that court might have done upon the writ of error sued out for therev iew of the Circuit (now District) Court. In Watts, Watts & Co. v. Unione Austriaca, etc., 248 U. S. 9, 21, 39 S. Ct. 1, 2, 63 L. Ed. 100, 3 A. L. R. 323, it was said that: 'This court, in the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction, has power not only to correct error in the judgment entered below, but to make such disposition of the case as justice may at this time require'; and 'the rule is the more insistent, because in admiralty cases are tried de novo on appeal.' See, also, Dorchy v. Kansas, 264 U. S. 286, 289, 44 S. Ct. 323, 68 L. Ed. 686.

The authorities relied upon by petitioner are not to the contrary. They contain no challenge to the rule laid down in the decisions cited immediately above, but proceed upon the theory that the court is not bound to consider objections to the decree urged by respondent, in the absence of cross-petition for certiorari. In Warner Co. v. Pier Co., 278 U. S. 85, 91, 49 S. Ct. 45, 46, 73 L. Ed. 195, where the authorities are collected, it is said:

'Objections to the decree below were offered by counsel for respondents in their briefs and arguments here. But no application for certiorari was made in their behalf and we confine our consideration to errors assigned by the petitioner.'

In Hubbard v. Tod, 171 U. S. 474, 494, 19 S. Ct. 14, 21, 43 L. Ed. 246, the court disposed of the matter by saying:

'And, as respondents did not apply for certiorari, we shall confine our consideration of the case to the examination of errors assigned by petitioner.'

In Federal Trade Comm. v. Pac. Paper Ass'n, 273 U. S. 52, 47 S. Ct. 255, 71 L. Ed. 534, respondents, without presenting a cross-petition for certiorari, sought a reversal of a distinct portion of the decree. This court,...