197 Mass. 349 | Mass. | 1908
This is an action brought by a trustee process to recover damages for. personal injuries. The defendant has not appeared, but a member of our bar, as a friend of the court, following the practice approved by Chief Justice Marshall in Osborn v. United States Bank, 9 Wheat. 738, 870, has brought before the court a suggestion that the action be dismissed, and
Upon this suggestion the question at once arises whether the court has jurisdiction of a suit which is virtually against the king of a foreign country. An answer in the negative comes almost as quickly.
The general subject of the immunity of the sovereign power from the jurisdiction of its own court was considered and discussed at great length by Mr. Justice Gray, in Briggs v. Lightboats, 11 Allen, 157, and, after an exhaustive review of the
The doctrine that the courts have no jurisdiction to proceed with a suit against the sovereign of another State is established in England in numerous decisions. It applies to all proceedings against the public property of such a sovereign. It was clearly laid down and applied in the cases of Wadsworth v. Queen of Spain, 17 Q. B. 171, and DeHaber v. Queen of Portugal, 17 Q. B. 171, 196. It was again applied in The Constitution, L. R. 4 P. D. 39, and also in The Parlement Belge, L. R. 5 P. D. 197, where an elaborate review of the decisions is given by Brett, L. J., who says on page 214: “ The principle to be deduced from all these cases is that, as a consequence of the absolute independence of every sovereign authority, and of the international comity which induces every sovereign State to respect the inde
In Vavasseur v. Krupp, 9 Ch. D. 351, 361, Lord Justice Cotton sums up the law as follows: “ This court has no jurisdiction, and in my opinion none of the courts in this country have any jurisdiction, to interfere with the property of a foreign sovereign, more especially what we call the public property of the State of which he is sovereign as distinguished from that which may be his own private property. The courts have no jurisdiction to do so, not only because there is no jurisdiction as against the individual, but because there is no jurisdiction as against the foreign country whose property they are, although that foreign country is represented, as all foreign countries having a sovereign are represented, by the individual who is the sovereign.” In Young v. The Scotia, [1903] A. C. 501, there is an elaborate discussion of the exemption of public property from process of the courts of its own sovereignty. The doctrine was applied to a claim for salvage of a public vessel which was used by the Canadian government as a ferry boat, in connection with a line of railway and as a part of the general means of transportation, just as cars are used on the Inter-colonial Railway. See also the very recent case of The Jassy, 75 L. J. P. D. & A. 93, where the principle suggested for our guidance was applied to a vessel which was the property of the King of Roumania.
The principles which have long been recognized as applicable to the dealings of all nations with one another, as well as the formal decisions of the courts, make it plain that this action must be dismissed for want of jurisdiction. The plaintiff must seek her remedy in the courts of the country in which she received her injury, where there is a statutory provision for such cases.
Action dismissed.