Chick Kam Choo et al. v. Exxon Corp. et al. (486 U.S. 140)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 16, 1988 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 486 U.S. 140 · 108 S. Ct. 1684
- Decided
- May 16, 1988
- Term
- October Term 1987
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns the propriety of an injunction entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The injunction prohibited specified parties from litigating a certain matter in the Texas state courts. We must determine whether this injunction is permissible under the Anti-Injunction Act, 28 U. S. C. § 2283, which generally bars federal courts from granting injunctions to stay proceedings in state courts. I In 1977 Leong Chong, a resident of the Republic of Singapore, was accidentally killed in that country while performing repair work on a ship owned by respondent Esso Tankers, Inc., a subsidiary of respondent Exxon Corporation. Petitioner Chick Kam Choo, also a resident of Singapore, is Chong’s widow. In 1978 she brought suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, presenting claims under the Jones Act, 46 U. S. C. §688, the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), 46 U. S. C. § 761, the general maritime law of the United States, App. 4, and the Texas Wrongful Death Statute, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. §§71.001-71.031 (1986). Respondents moved for summary judgment on the Jones Act and DOHSA claims, arguing that Chong was not a seaman, which rendered the Jones Act inapplicable, and that Chong had not died on the “high seas” but while the ship was in port,…
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