De La Rama Co v. United States

• Decision Date: 02 February 1953
• Docket Number: No. 368,368
• Citation: 73 S.Ct. 381,97 L.Ed. 422,344 U.S. 386
• Parties: DE LA RAMA S.S. CO., Inc. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

344 U.S. 386

73 S.Ct. 381

97 L.Ed. 422

DE LA RAMA S.S. CO., Inc.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 368.

Argued Jan. 15, 1953.

Decided Feb. 2, 1953.

Mr. Harold M. Kennedy, Brooklyn, N.Y., for petitioner.

Mr. Benjamin Forman, Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a suit in admiralty against the United States, in which the libellant, petitioner here, sought to recover for its loss of the M. V. Dona Aurora, which was sunk by enemy action on December 25, 1942. The basis of the libel was a war risk policy issued by the War Shipping Administration under the War Risk Insurance Act of June 29, 1940, 54 Stat. 689, 690, as amended ,46 U.S.C. § 1128d, 46 U.S.C.A. § 1128d. The libel was filed on December 22, 1944. On July 25, 1947, Congress passed a Joint Resolution putting an end to a large body of war powers. Among the hundred-odd statutory provisions thus repealed was the War Risk Insurance Act. 61 Stat. 449, 450. On October 4, 1948, determination of damages in advance of trial was referred to a Commissioner; his report was filed on March 23, 1950; it was confirmed (subject to some exceptions) on July 27, 1950, D.C., 92 F.Supp. 243; the case was reached for trial on March 6, 1951. The Government for the first time then raised the jurisdictional issue on which this case turns here, namely, whether the District Court had, as of July 25, 1947, been deprived of jurisdiction to retain this suit by the Joint Resolution.

The District Court rejected the Government's contention, holding that § 13 of the Revised Statutes, as amended,^* saved the libellant's cause of action from being extinguished by the Joint Resolution of July 25, 1947. The court properly called attention to the fact that § 13, originally § 4 of the Act of February 25, 1871, 16 Stat 431, 432, was reenacted, as amended, 58 Stat. 118, as 1 U.S.C.(Supp. I) § 109, 1 U.S.C.A. § 109, 61 Stat. 633, 635, after passage of the Joint Resolution, to wit, on July 30, 1947. 98 F.Supp. 514. However, the Government's view prevailed in the Court of Appeals. That court held that 'the district court on July 25, 1947 lost its power to deal further with the litigation.' 198 F.2d 182, 186. The Government recognized the importance of this ruling, and we brought the case here, limiting our grant of certiorari to the question of the jurisdiction of the District Court. 344 U.S. 883, 73 S.Ct. 184.

The precise contention which the Government made in the Court of Appeals, and which prevailed there, goes a long way toward disposing of itself. The Government did not contend that its liability to the petitioner came to an end with the Joint Resolution's repeal of the War Risk Insurance Act. Apart from R.S. § 13, the Constitution precludes extinction of the Government's liability. Lynch v. United States, 292 U.S. 571, 54 S.Ct. 840, 78 L.Ed. 1434. The Government realized that its liability under the War Risk Insurance Act survived the Joint Resolution, but claimed that the mode provided by the Act for its enforcement did not. In this Court, the Government receded even from that position. It here took the academic position of giving the arguments pro and con, of stating the reasons why R.S. § 13, the General Savings Statute, now 1 U.S.C.(Supp.I) § 109, 1 U.S.C.A. § 109, should be held to govern this situation, and also the reasons why it should be held inapplicable. We find the latter considerations more subtle than persuasive, and conclude that the arguments urged in support of the continuing jurisdiction of district courts to hear causes of action which arose under the War Risk Insurance Act prior to its repeal must prevail.

In dealing with the present problem it is idle to thresh over the old disputation as to when the Government is, and when the Government is not, bound by a statute un- restricted in its terms. R.S. § 13, as reenacted, lays down a general rule regarding the implications for existing rights of the repeal of the law which created them. It embodies a principle of fair dealing. When the Government has entered upon a conventional commercial endeavor, such as the insurance business, it as much offends standards of fairness for it to violate the principle of R.S. § 13 as for private enterprise to do so.

This brings us to the crux of the contention which prevailed below, namely, that while the Government's obligation as an insurer, while came into being with the sinking of the Dona Aurora on December 25, 1942, survived the repeal of the War Risk Insurance Act by the Joint Resolution of 1947, the 'liability' could be enforced only in the Court of Claims, not in the District Court. This conclusion is no more substantial than the tenuous bits of legal reasoning of which it is compounded.

By the General Savings Statute Congress did not merely save from extinction a liability incurred under the repealed statute; it saved the statute itself:

'and such statute shall be treated as still remaining in force for the purpose of sustaining any proper action * * * for the enforcement of such * * * liability.'

We see no reason why a careful provision of Congress, keeping a repealed statute alive for a precise purpose, should not be respected when doing so will attain exactly that purpose.

This case demonstrates the concrete, dollars-and-cents importance of saving the statute and not merely the liability. Indeed, in this case the liability under the statute is not wholly saved unless that portion of the statute which gives the District Court jurisdiction also survives. As the Government fairly points out, to deny petitioner the...