De La Rama Steamship Co., Inc. v. United States (344 U.S. 386)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 2, 1953 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 344 U.S. 386 · 73 S. Ct. 381
- Decided
- February 2, 1953
- Term
- October Term 1952
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Frankfurter
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a suit in admiralty against the United States, in which the libellant, petitioner here, sought to recover for its loss of the M. V. Dona Aurora, which was sunk by enemy action on December 25, 1942. The basis of the libel was a war risk policy issued by the War Shipping Administration under the War Risk Insurance Act of June 29, 1940, 54 Stat. 689, 690, as amended, 46 U. S. C. § 1128d. The libel was filed on December 22, 1944. On July 25, 1947, Congress passed a Joint Resolution putting an end to a large body of war powers. Among the hundred-odd statutory provisions thus repealed was the War Risk Insurance Act. 61 Stat. 449, 450. On October 4, 1948, determination of damages in advance of trial was referred to a Commissioner; his report was filed on March 23, 1950; it was confirmed (subject to some exceptions) on July 27, 1950, 92 F. Supp. 243; the case was reached for trial on March 6, 1951. The Government for the first time then raised the jurisdictional issue on which this case turns here, namely, whether the District Court had, as of July 25, 1947, been deprived of jurisdiction to retain this suit by the Joint Resolution. The District Court rejected the Government’s contention, holding that § 13 of the Revised Statutes, as amended, saved the libellant’s cause of action from being extinguished by the Joint…
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