THE SIGNE
| Decision Date | 04 April 1941 |
| Docket Number | No. 489.,489. |
| Citation | 37 F. Supp. 819 |
| Parties | THE SIGNE. TIEDEMANN v. THE SIGNE et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
Charles Recht, of New York City, and Terriberry, Young, Rault & Carroll, Andrew R. Martinez, and Joseph M. Rault, all of New Orleans, La., for plaintiff.
P. A. Beck, of New York City, and Denegre, Leovy & Chaffe and Lloyd A. Ray, all of New Orleans, La., for defendant.
Proctors of record for the libelant herein, filed their motion suggesting to the court that they desire to procure the testimony of Oskar Tiedemann, the libelant, who is represented as residing at Vabaduse Valjak 10, Tallinn, Estonia.
It is made to appear by said motion that such testimony can not be secured, save and except by and through means of letters rogatory from this court, requesting the Supreme Court of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, at Moscow, to assist this court in obtaining said testimony; and the appropriate order for such letters rogatory, from this court, addressed to said Supreme Court, "or such Court or Courts of competent jurisdiction exercising jurisdiction in the City of Moscow, U.S.S.R.", is accordingly applied for.
Strenuous opposition to the granting of said order is made by the proctors for respondent and claimant, and whilst the court's first natural inclination was to grant the application for letters rogatory since, as it is represented by the movers, the testimony of the libelant may not otherwise be secured, and he should, under normal conditions, be granted the opportunity to present to the court such legal evidence as he deems proper to establish the claimed rights of himself and his alleged principals in and to the S. S. Florida, her engines, tackle, apparel, furniture, appurtenances and equipment, a further and more comprehensive examination into the subject matter, however, has forced the court to the definite conclusion that there would be no justification for the granting of the application for such letters rogatory, in view of existent circumstances, over which, it may nevertheless be true, the libelant has, unfortunately, no control.
Such libelant is represented by the movers to be a resident of Estonia, and Estonia is that autonomous country of which the absorption by and into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was sought to be effected by said Union during the year 1940, although the United States of America has never recognized such attempted absorption, and regards as still in force the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights between said Estonia and themselves, which was signed on December 23, 1925; and said United States of America, as late as December 19, 1940, and unto this very day (the court has no reason to doubt), continues to recognize an Acting Counsel General of Estonia, at New York, as vested with authority to act as such.
Letters rogatory are the medium, in effect, whereby one country, speaking through one of its courts, requests another country, acting through its own courts and by methods of court procedure peculiar thereto and entirely within the latter's control, to assist the administration of justice in the former country; such request being made, and being usually granted, by reason of the comity existing between nations in ordinary peaceful times.
The country so requesting this aid for and on behalf of the orderly administration and dispensing of justice in its courts, first conveys, in its letters rogatory, the official greetings of its governing head to the court, or courts, in the foreign country wherein resides a witness whose testimony it is sought to take by means of the good offices of said court, or courts, and the sustaining authority of the laws therein administered concerning the taking of evidence under letters rogatory. 24 Words and Phrases, Permanent Edition, "Letters Rogatory", pp. 704, 705; Black's Law Dictionary, 3d Edition, p. 1092.
For usual form of letters rogatory, see Benedict on Admiralty, 6th Edition-Knauth, § 400, p. 99; and form used in this court.
"By the law of nations", reads Benedict on Admiralty, § 400, p. 92, "the courts of justice of different countries are bound mutually to aid and assist each other for the furtherance of justice." To secure such aid and assistance, letters rogatory are resorted to (the author continues), and the request to take the desired testimony which is thereby made of the court, or courts, in the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Lantheus Med. Imaging, Inc. v. Zurich Am. Ins. Co.
...times.” Int'l Soc'y for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. v. Lee, 105 F.R.D. 435, 438 n. 3 (S.D.N.Y.1984) (“Krishna ”) (quoting The Signe, 37 F.Supp. 819, 820 (E.D.La.1941)).2. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Acta. Immunity Protections Generally The FSIA provides that a foreign sovereign shall b......
-
United States v. Zabady
...existing between nations in ordinary peaceful times." 4 Moore's Federal Practice, ¶ 28.05 at 28-22 (2d ed. 1981), quoting The Signe, 37 F.Supp. 819, 820 (E.D. La. 1941). It was testified to that the Government has made these requests for judicial assistance to each of the eight foreign coun......
-
US v. Lopez
...absence of a treaty, on comity between nations at peace. United States v. Zabady, 546 F.Supp. 35, 39 n. 9 (M.D.Pa.1982); The Signe, 37 F.Supp. 819, 820 (E.D.La.1941). There is no judicial assistance treaty between the United States and Federal courts have the power to issue requests for jud......
-
Letter Rogatory from Justice Court, Dist. of Montreal, Canada, In re
...States District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee, sitting by designation.1 Letters rogatory are defined in The Signe, 37 F.Supp. 819, 820 (E.D.La.1941):Letters rogatory are the medium, in effect, whereby one country, speaking through one of its courts, requests another country, a......
-
Antitrust and International Commerce
...made, and being usually granted, by reason of the comity existing between nations in ordinary peaceful times. Tiedemann v. The Signe, 37 F. Supp. 819, 820 (E.D. La. 1941); see also Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., 542 U.S. 241, 248 n.1 (2004) (“[A] letter rogatory is the request......
-
Table of Cases
...185, 188, 194, 196, 197, 1027, 1037 Tidmore Oil Co. v. BP Oil Co., 932 F.2d 1384 (11th Cir. 1991), 28, 163, 166, 878 Tiedemann v. Signe, 37 F. Supp. 819 (E.D. La. 1941), 1362 Tiger Trash v. Browning-Ferris Indus., 560 F.2d 818 (7th Cir. 1977), 1343 Tigner v. Texas, 310 U.S. 141 (1940), 1455......