HELLENIC LINES LTD. ET AL. v. RHODITIS
No. 661
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 21, 1970—Decided June 8, 1970
398 U.S. 306
Joseph B. Stahl argued the cause and filed a brief for respondent.
Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed by Mr. Estabrook and David P. H. Watson for the Royal Greek Government, and by John R. Sheneman and Edwin K. Reid for the Greek Chamber of Shipping et al.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed by Arthur J. Mandell for the American Trial Lawyers Association, and by Abraham E. Freedman for the National Maritime Union of America.
This is a suit under the Jones Act1 by a seaman who was injured aboard the ship Hellenic Hero in the Port of New Orleans. The District Court, sitting without a jury, rendered judgment for the seaman, 273 F. Supp. 248. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 412 F. 2d 919. The case is here on petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted, 396 U. S. 1000, in light of the conflict between the decision below and Tsakonites v. Transpacific Carriers Corp., 368 F. 2d 426, in the Second Circuit.
Petitioner2 Hellenic Lines Ltd. is a Greek corporation that has its largest office in New York and another office in New Orleans. More than 95% of its stock3 is owned by a United States domiciliary who is a Greek citizen—Pericles G. Callimanopoulos (whom we call Pericles). He lives in Connecticut and manages the corporation out of New York. He has lived in this coun-
Respondent, the seaman, signed on in Greece, and he is a Greek citizen. His contract of employment provides that Greek law and a Greek collective-bargaining agreement apply between the employer and the seaman and that all claims arising out of the employment contract are to be adjudicated by a Greek court. And it seems to be conceded that respondent could obtain relief through Greek courts, if he desired.
The Jones Act speaks only of “the defendant employer” without any qualifications. In Lauritzen v. Larsen, 345 U. S. 571, however, we listed seven factors to be considered in determining whether a particular shipowner should be held to be an “employer” for Jones Act purposes:
(1) the place of the wrongful act; (2) the law of the flag; (3) the allegiance or domicile of the injured seaman; (4) allegiance of the defendant shipowner; (5) the place where the contract of employment was made; (6) the inaccessibility of a foreign forum; and (7) the law of the forum.
Of these seven factors it is urged that four are in favor of the shipowner and against jurisdiction: the ship‘s flag is Greek; the injured seaman is Greek; the employment contract is Greek; and there is a foreign forum available to the injured seaman.
The Lauritzen test, however, is not a mechanical one. 345 U. S., at 582. We indicated that the flag that a ship flies may, at times, alone be sufficient. Id., at 585-586.
In Lauritzen the injured seaman had been hired in and was returned to the United States, and the shipowner was served here. Those were the only contacts of that shipping operation with this country.
The present case is quite different.
Pericles became a lawful permanent resident alien in 1952. We extend to such an alien the same constitutional protections of due process that we accord citizens.5
Affirmed.
I dissent from today‘s decision holding that a Greek seaman who signs articles in Greece for employment on a Greek-owned, Greek-flag vessel may recover under the Jones Act for shipboard injuries sustained while the vessel was in American territorial waters. This result is supported neither by precedent, nor realistic policy, and in my opinion is far removed from any intention that can reasonably be ascribed to Congress.
A
Section 688 of Title 46, U. S. C., 41 Stat. 1007, the Jones Act, provides:
“Any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment may, at his election, maintain an action for damages at law, with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the common-law right or remedy in cases of personal injury to railway employees shall apply; and in case of the death of any seaman as a result of any such personal injury the personal representative of such seaman may maintain an action for damages at law with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States conferring or regulating the right of action for death in the case of railway employees shall be applicable. Jurisdiction in such actions shall be under the court of the district in which the defendant employer resides or in which his principal office is located.”
The language of § 688 is, as Mr. Justice Jackson noted in Lauritzen v. Larsen, 345 U. S. 571 (1953), all-embracing. By its terms it is not limited to American
This Court only recently applied this principle in McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional, 372 U. S. 10 (1963), where we were called upon to determine whether labor relations dealing with an alien crew on a foreign-flag vessel, beneficially owned by an American corporation, affected “commerce” within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. In holding that the Act was not “intended to have any application to foreign registered vessels employing alien seamen,” the Court declined to rely on the beneficial ownership of the vessel and other “substantial United States contacts,” including regular visits to the United States and the “integrated maritime operation” of the United Fruit Company, the beneficial owner of the vessel, to override the well-settled principle that the law of the country whose flag a ship flies governs shipboard transactions, absent some “clear expression” from Congress to the contrary. See Wildenhus‘s Case, 120 U. S. 1 (1887); United States v. Flores, 289 U. S. 137, 155-159 (1933); Cunard Steamship Co. v. Mellon,
The McCulloch case followed a course marked early in our jurisprudence, and, in fact, built upon Lauritzen which had announced that the law of the flag, “the most venerable and universal rule of maritime law,” would in Jones Act cases “overbear most other connecting events in determining applicable law . . . unless some heavy counterweight appears.” 345 U. S., at 584, 585-586.
Such a counterweight would exist only in circumstances where the application of the American rule of law would further the purpose of Congress. While some legislation in its purpose obviously requires extension beyond our borders to achieve national policy, this is not so, in my opinion, with an Act concerned with prescribing particular remedies, rather than one regulating commerce or creating a standard for conduct.
The only justification that I can see for extending extraterritorially a remedial-type provision like § 688
In the early decisions involving citizen and resident alien seamen serving on foreign vessels, some additional factor, such as the vessel‘s presence in American waters or beneficial American ownership, was considered to be an element justifying recovery. See Uravic v. F. Jarka Co., supra; Gerradin v. United Fruit Co., 60 F. 2d 927 (C. A. 2d Cir. 1932); compare Gambera v. Bergoty, supra, with O‘Neill v. Cunard White Star, 160 F. 2d 446 (C. A. 2d Cir. 1947). Lauritzen in enumerating these factors (“contacts“) as independent considerations, was attempting to focus analysis on those factors that are the necessary ingredients for a statutory cause of action: first, as a matter of statutory construction, is plaintiff within that class of seamen that Congress intended to cover by the statute? and, second, is there a sufficient nexus between the defendant and this country so as to justify the assertion of legislative jurisdiction?2 In other words the Court must define “seaman” and “employer” as those words are used in
Viewed in this perspective, today‘s decision and decisions of several lower courts that have taken the phenomenon of “convenient” foreign registry as a wedge for displacing the law of the flag, see, e. g., Southern Cross Steamship Co. v. Firipis, 285 F. 2d 651 (C. A. 4th Cir. 1960); Pavlou v. Ocean Traders Marine Corp., 211 F. Supp. 320 (D. C. S. D. N. Y. 1962); Voyiatzis v. National Shipping & Trading Corp., 199 F. Supp. 920 (D. C. S. D. N. Y. 1961), have, I believe, misconstrued these basic premises on which Lauritzen was founded. This is underscored by the fact that the Lauritzen allusion to the practice of American owners of finding a “convenient” flag “to avoid stringent shipping laws by seeking foreign registration eagerly offered by some countries,” 345 U. S., at 587, was prefaced by citation and discussion of Skiriotes v. Florida, 313 U. S. 69 (1941), and Steele v. Bulova Watch Co., 344 U. S. 280 (1952), both of which dealt with the question of when legislative jurisdiction existed to apply domestic law to American nationals abroad. In both cases the application of domestic law
The Lauritzen statement, lifted out of context, has acquired a dynamism and become the justification for recovery by foreign seamen simply on the ground that convenient “registry” somehow circumvents an obligation that Congress desired to impose on all owners within its jurisdiction.4
Even were Jones Act liability a significant uncompensated cost in the operation of an American ship, I could not regard this as a reason for extending Jones Act recovery to foreign seamen when the underlying concern of the legislation before us is the adjustment of the risk of loss between individuals and not the regulation of commerce or competition.
Today‘s decision suggests that courts have become mesmerized by contacts, and notwithstanding the purported eschewal of a mechanical application of the Lauritzen test, they have lost sight of the primary purpose of Lauritzen which, as I conceive it, was to reconcile the all-embracing language of the Jones Act with those principles of comity embodied in international and maritime law that are designed to “foster amicable and workable commercial relations.” 345 U. S., at 582. Lauritzen, properly understood, should, I submit, be taken to focus the judicial inquiry on the purpose of Congress and the presence or absence of an adequate basis for the assertion of American jurisdiction, when that purpose may be furthered by application of the statute in the circumstances presented.
Where, as in the case before us, the injured plaintiff has no American ties, the inquiry should be directed toward determining what jurisdiction is primarily concerned with plaintiff‘s welfare and whether that jurisdiction‘s rule may, consistent with those notions of due process that determine the presence of legislative jurisdiction, govern recovery. In the case before us, there is no reason to disregard either the law of the flag or plaintiff‘s contractual undertaking to accept Greek law as controlling, thereby in effect assuming that he signed articles under conditions that would justify disregarding the contractual choice of law. Rhoditis is a Greek national who resides in Greece. Under these circumstances Greek law provides the appropriate rule.
I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals, and hold that the Jones Act affords no redress to this seaman.
Notes
“Any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment may, at his election, maintain an action for damages at law, with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the common-law right or remedy in cases of personal injury to railway employees shall apply; and in case of the death of any seaman as a result of any such personal injury the personal representative of such seaman may maintain an action for damages at law with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States conferring or regulating the right of action for death in the case of railway employees shall be applicable. Jurisdiction in such actions shall be under the court of the district in which the defendant employer resides or in which his principal office is located.”
Steele involved the question of whether a district court “has jurisdiction to award relief to an American corporation against acts of trade-mark infringement and unfair competition consummated in a foreign country by a citizen and resident of the United States.” 344 U. S., at 281. There was no question that plaintiff had suffered the injury and American commerce had been adversely affected in the way that the Lanham Act sought to prevent. The court concluded that in such circumstances liability could not be avoided simply by performing the forbidden acts in a foreign territory. Cf. Continental Ore Co. v. Union Carbide, 370 U. S. 690, 704 (1962); United States v. Sisal Sales Corp., 274 U. S. 268 (1927).
“[T]he decisional process of arriving at a conclusion on the subject of the application of the Jones Act involves the ascertainment of the facts or groups of facts which constitute contacts between the transaction involved in the case and the United States, and then deciding whether or not they are substantial. Thus each factor is to be ‘weighed’ and ‘evaluated’ only to the end that, after each factor has been given consideration, a rational and satisfactory conclusion may be arrived at on the question of whether all the factors present add up to the necessary substantiality. Moreover, each factor, or contact, or group of facts must be tested in the light of the underlying objective, which is to effectuate the liberal purposes of the Jones Act.” Bartholomew v. Universe Tankships, Inc., 263 F. 2d 437, 441.
The Second Circuit quite properly relied on the beneficial ownership of the ship to permit recovery in Bartholomew v. Universe Tankships, Inc., 263 F. 2d 437 (C. A. 2d Cir. 1959), where the injured plaintiff was an American domiciliary. Bartholomew, unfortunately, apprehended what I conceive to be unintended reverberations in Justice Jackson‘s Lauritzen language which it all but echoed: “looking through the facade of foreign registration and incorporation to the American ownership . . . is essential unless the purposes of the Jones Act are to be frustrated by American shipowners intent upon evading their obligations under the law by the simple expedient of incorporating in a foreign country and registering their vessels under a foreign flag.” 263 F. 2d 437, 442.