MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.
Petitioner was a seaman on the S.S. Escanaba Victory, a vessel owned by the United States and operated under an agreement between the War Shipping Administration
Its opinion was dated August 5, 1946, and on the same day it entered an order reading as follows:
On October 14, 1946, it filed "Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law" and a decree. The decree after formal recitals stated:
The Court of Appeals by a divided vote dismissed the appeal, holding that the first order was the final one and that the decree of October 14, 1946, was not appealable. 165 F.2d 504. The case is here on certiorari.
I. We find it unnecessary to determine whether the order of August 5 or that of October 14, 1946, was the final decision
The mandate of that statute is for a court to disregard niceties of form and to give judgment as the right of the
II. The ruling of the District Court that the provisions of § 2 of the Suits in Admiralty Act, directing where suits shall be brought,
The section relates not to libels in rem but to libels in personam. A similar provision in § 5 of the Tucker Act (24 Stat. 506, 28 U.S.C. (1946 ed.) § 762, 28 U.S.C. § 1402), was held to prescribe venue and hence could be and was waived by failure to object before pleading to
Congress, by describing the district where the suit was to be brought, was not investing the federal courts "with a general jurisdiction expressed in terms applicable alike to all of them." See Panama R. Co. v. Johnson, supra, p. 384. It was dealing with the convenience of the parties in suing or being sued at the designated places. The purpose of the Act was to grant seamen relief against the United States in its own courts. The concepts of residence and principal place of business obviously can have no relevance when applied to the United States. It is ubiquitous throughout the land and, unlike private parties, is not centered at one particular place. The residence or principal place of business of the libelant and the place where the vessel or cargo is found may be the best measure of the convenience of the parties. But if the United States is willing to defend in a different place, we find nothing in the Act to prevent it.
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded to the District Court for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion.
Reversed.
FootNotes
"That in cases where if such vessel were privately owned or operated, or if such cargo were privately owned and possessed, a proceeding in admiralty could be maintained at the time of the commencement of the action herein provided for, a libel in personam may be brought against the United States or against such corporation, as the case may be, provided that such vessel is employed as a merchant vessel or is a tug boat operated by such corporation. Such suits shall be brought in the district court of the United States for the district in which the parties so suing, or any of them, reside or have their principal place of business in the United States, or in which the vessel or cargo charged with liability is found. . . . Upon application of either party the cause may, in the discretion of the court, be transferred to any other district court of the United States."
"No summons, writ, declaration, return, process, judgment, or other proceedings in civil causes, in any court of the United States, shall be abated, arrested, quashed, or reversed for any defect or want of form; but such court shall proceed and give judgment according as the right of the cause and matter in law shall appear to it, without regarding any such defect, or want of form, except those which, in cases of demurrer, the party demurring specially sets down, together with his demurrer, as the cause thereof; and such court shall amend every such defect and want of form, other than those which the party demurring so expresses; and may at any time permit either of the parties to amend any defect in the process or pleadings, upon such conditions as it shall, in its discretion and by its rules, prescribe."
After the dismissal of the appeal in this case, the foregoing section was repealed, effective September 1, 1948. 62 Stat. 992, § 39. And see Revision of Title 28, U.S. Code, H. Rep. No. 308, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., p. A 239. But the policy expressed in § 954 was preserved as respects cases pending at the time of the repeal, since the repealing statute provides that "Any rights or liabilities now existing under such sections or parts thereof shall not be affected by this repeal." And see Rules 1, 15, 61, and 81, Rules of Civil Procedure.
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