167 F. Supp. 841 | D.P.R. | 1958
All of the above suits were originally filed in District Courts in Continental United States under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.A. § 688. They were subsequently transferred to this court, where upon motion by the respective libelants, they were permitted to amend their complaints to libels in order to state claims under the general maritime law. (Order of May 13, 1958 entered on May 14, 1958). Respondents have filed exceptive allegations alleging laches in all of the above suits. The cases of Rodolfo de Jesus v. Bull, No. 21-58; Vincente Martinez v. Bull, No. 22-58, and Felix Rodriguez Torres v. Baltimore Insular Line Inc., No. 23-58, also consolidated with the above were settled after submission of the exceptions to the court for decision-.
“The district court, however, held that the Workmen’s Accident Compensation Act of Puerto Rico applies to his case and lays down conditions precedent to his suit which he has not met. In the Lastra case [Lastra v. New York & Porto Rico S.S. Co., 1 Cir., 2 F.2d 812], this court held that the Workmen’s Accident Compensation Act of Puerto Rico which was then in force applied to maritime workers. We adhere to that view. For we still think, as we indicated in the Lastra case, that Congress intended by section 8 of the Jones Act to give the Legislature of Puerto Rico full power to provide compensation for marine workers injured in Puerto Rican waters to the exclusion of the remedies against their employers provided by the American maritime law. It is very persuasive of this intent that Congress at about the same time as it passed the Jones Act sought to grant similar authority to the states to provide workmen’s compensation for maritime workers. The fact that this action was later held by the Supreme Court to be abortive as an unconstitutional delegation of Congressional power to the States does not detract from its weight as evidence of the intention of that body. Nor does it indicate a similar lack of power to act with respect to Puerto Rico. For what Congress could not constitutionally delegate to the legislature of a state ás the organ of an independent sovereignty, it might well be able to delegate to the legislature which it had created for a territory which it had organized. There is nothing in the Congressional actions which led to the establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to suggest that Congress intended the Commonwealth to have less power of legislation in the field of maritime law than the territorial legislature had theretofore enjoyed. We conclude, therefore, that the Workmen’s Accident Compensation Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico covers maritime workers injured or killed in the territorial waters of Puerto Rico except to the extent that it may have been superseded as to any class of maritime workers by compensation legislation passed by Congress and intended to apply to all navigable waters of the United States”. (Emphasis supplied).
The quoted language is significant, because, it proclaims the Puerto Rican Act as the basis for the admiralty suit in this court and indeed bespeaks a delegation, not revoked by the establishment of the Commonwealth, to the local legislature of the power of Congress to legislate respecting marine workers injured in Puerto Rican waters. The legislation enacted by the Puerto Rican Legislature pursuant to this delegated authority, clearly establishes as a condition that
I am aware of the rule in the Second Circuit that reference should be made to the limitation statute of the forum of the state where the libel is filed in determining laches. Le Gate v. The Panamolga, 2 Cir., 221 F.2d 689. But it would be inequitable, in view of the considerations set forth above, mechanically to apply the statute of the state of filing of the libel in these cases, when all subsequent proceedings are to take place in the forum where the alleged accident occurred, especially so where, as here, the cases were first filed as Jones Act actions and after being transferred to this forum, changed to admiralty suits upon plaintiffs’ motion. It has not been shown that any attempt was ever made to seize the vessels in Puerto Rico, although respondents maintain a regular service to Puerto Rico. There was every reason to institute suit in Puerto Rico instead of Continental United States, except perhaps for the reasons stated by Judge Medina in Torres v. Walsh, 2 Cir., 221 F.2d 319, 320. For these reasons, and in the exercise of my discretion, I must hold that these suits are prima facie barred by laches, and that the burden is cast upon libelants to show special circumstances excusing their delay. The libels will therefore be dismissed unless libelants, within 30 days file an amended libel showing special circumstances excusing their delay.
It is so ordered.