Sun Oil Co. v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp.

• Citation: 108 F. Supp. 280
• Decision Date: 12 November 1952
• Docket Number: Civ. A. 13005.
• Parties: SUN OIL CO. v. TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE LINE CORP.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

108 F. Supp. 280

SUN OIL CO. v. TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE LINE CORP.

Civ. A. 13005.

United States District Court E. D. Pennsylvania.

November 12, 1952.

Krusen, Evans & Shaw, Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff.

Rawle & Henderson, Philadelphia, Pa., for defendant.

GRIM, District Judge.

As part of its business of producing and marketing large quantities of petroleum products plaintiff, the Sun Oil Company, maintains a fleet of ocean going tank vessels which go to and from Texas and its pier on the west bank of the Delaware river at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. Defendant, the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corporation, has installed and has maintained a twelve inch pipe line across and under the Delaware river immediately south of plaintiff's pier at Marcus Hook. This is a part of a pipe line used for conveying natural gas from Texas to New Jersey and the New York area. On January 26, 1951, this pipe line in the Delaware river off Marcus Hook was badly damaged and broken by the anchor of the Texas Sun, one of plaintiff's tanker vessels. On August 17, 1951, after the pipe line had been repaired, the anchor of the Atlantic Sun, another of plaintiff's tanker vessels, again damaged and broke the pipe line. The damaging of this pipe line has caused great loss to the defendant and to South Jersey Gas Company, which is a user of the gas which is transported by defendant.

On November 30, 1951, plaintiff filed this action, which, among other things, asks for a declaratory judgment determining and declaring the rights and liabilities of the plaintiff and defendant, respectively, arising out of the aforesaid damages to defendant's pipe line.

On December 5, 1951, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corporation, the defendant in the present action in this court, filed two actions in admiralty in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division, against the Sun Oil Company, the plaintiff in the present action in this court. One of the Texas suits was a personal action against the Sun Oil Company and an in rem action against the vessel Texas Sun; the other suit was a personal action against the Sun Oil Company and an in rem action against the vessel Atlantic Sun. At the same time the South Jersey Gas Company filed an action in admiralty against the Sun Oil Company and the two vessels in the same court in Texas. In these actions recovery is sought for the amount of damage which has been sustained by the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corporation and by the South Jersey Gas Company as a result of the damaging of the pipe line under the Delaware river at Marcus Hook on January 26, 1951, and August 17, 1951, as has been described. Since the Sun Oil Company does business in both Texas and Pennsylvania these actions could have been brought in Texas or in Pennsylvania.

Here we have a situation where a prospective defendant knowing that it is about to be sued in Texas¹ starts a declaratory judgment proceeding in Pennsylvania against the prospective plaintiff six days before the Texas suit is filed. In my opinion it is a fair inference from this that the plaintiff in the present action has started the declaratory judgment proceeding in this court in order to have the question of its liability tried here rather than in Texas.

In a negligence² action may a declaratory judgment proceeding be used by a prospective defendant to forestall an imminent suit by a prospective plaintiff and to choose the forum in which the action shall be tried? May a tortfeasor change his role from defendant to plaintiff in order to select the court in which to have his liability determined?

The Declaratory Judgments Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2201, provides that a court "may declare the rights and other legal relations of any interested party seeking such declaration". (underscoring supplied). It does not make it mandatory on courts to accept declaratory judgment cases, but puts considerable discretion in them as to whether or not in each case a declaratory judgment should be entered. Kerotest Manufacturing Co. v. C-O-Two Fire Equipment Co., 342 U.S. 180, 72 S.Ct. 219.

Plaintiff's counsel has cited no case, and a careful examination of the numerous reported declaratory judgment cases has failed to disclose a single case where a prospective defendant in a negligence action has obtained or even requested a declaration of his non-liability to a prospective plaintiff.³ A careful reading of the sections on the jurisdiction of courts in declaratory judgment cases and on the history and purpose of declaratory judgment acts in Borchard, Declaratory judgments (2d ed., 1941) indicates that it is not one of the purposes of the declaratory judgment acts⁴ to enable a prospective negligence action defendant to obtain a declaration of non-liability. In Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co. v. Central R. of New Jersey, D.C., 33 F.Supp. 362, at page 365, Judge Kalodner, then of this court, now of the Court of Appeals of the Third Circuit, said: "Construction and interpretation of written instruments (including contracts, insurance policies, statutes, ordinances, wills, and trusts) is the principle function of a declaratory judgment proceeding."

Therefore, although there appears to be no case directly in point on the problem, it would seem that the rule is that a declaratory judgment action should not be entertained when it is initiated by a prospective or actual defendant in a tort action. However, since the problem is largely one of discretion of a court, it seems that conceivably there might be an exception to the rule, the exception being that the declaratory judgment proceeding should be permitted in this type of case when it would be in the interest of justice or for the convenience of the parties to permit it.

In the present case the accidents happened near Philadelphia and it can be assumed that practically all the witnesses will come from an area close to Philadelphia. It would seem, therefore, that the...