Opinion
No. 140, Docket 21192.
January 31, 1949.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Proceeding in the matter of the petition of the United States, as owner of the steam tanker Spring Hill, her engines, boilers, etc., and of the Barber Asphalt Corporation as general agents, etc., in connection with the steam tanker Spring Hill, her engines, boilers, etc., for exoneration from or limitation of liability, and a similar petition by the Panama Transport Company, as owner and operator of Motor Ship Clio, for exoneration from or limitation of liability. From an order denying a motion for leave to file claims and answers in the limitation proceedings commenced by the Panama Transport Company and the United States, Yngvar Heier and another appeal.
Reversed.
This is an appeal from the denial of a motion for leave to file claims and answers in the limitation proceedings commenced by the Panama Transport Company and the United States as owners of the tankers Clio and Spring Hill. Appellants are seamen who were aboard the Norwegian tanker Vivi at the time of the collision between the Clio and the Spring Hill, and were injured by the fire which resulted. The circumstances are described in the opinion in the companion case of Petition of Panama Transport Co., 2 Cir., 172 F.2d 351.
On December 12, 1945, an order was entered in the limitation proceedings, noting the default of all persons who failed to file claims with the clerk before that time. Appellants' motion to file claims was not made until October 20, 1947. According to an affidavit submitted on behalf of the appellants, the delay resulted from their mistaken belief that a committee of seamen was representing their interests. The fund from which claims are to be paid had been partially distributed before appellants made their motion. The district judge denied the motion.
Jacob Rassner, of New York City (Jack Steinman, of New York City, of counsel), for appellants.
Kirlin Campbell Hickox Keating, of New York City (Raymond Parmer, of New York City, of counsel), for appellee Panama Transport Co.
Before AUGUSTUS N. HAND, CLARK, and FRANK, Circuit Judges.
Ordinarily the trial judge has discretion to permit the filing of later claims in an admiralty proceeding, at least as long as the fund has not been entirely distributed or a final decree entered. Meyer v. New England Fish Co., 9 Cir., 136 F.2d 315; Petition of Chester A. Poling, Inc., D.C.E.D.N.Y., 51 F. Supp. 375.
Since the appellants are Norwegian seamen, uninformed about our laws and procedures, who apparently were under the mistaken impression that their claims had been filed, leave to file the claims should have been granted, subject to the condition, to which their attorney agreed, that it would in no way prejudice any claimant who filed his claim within the prescribed time.
Reversed.