Vance W. Williams v. Tide Water Associated Oil Company, a Corporation

Williams appeals from the district court’s decision in a diversity case holding that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain in a civil suit with a trial by jury, a sailor’s cause of action against his employing owner of a tanker for her unseaworthiness and one for negligence of his fellow employees each seeking damages for injuries arising from the same facts. The lower court so decided though the courts of appeal of the First, Second, Third and Fifth Circuits hold such jurisdiction exists and no circuit now holds to the contrary. The First, Third and Fifth Circuits permit the trial of both issues in the same case, and the Second Circuit after two decisions to the contrary held that both contentions could be tried together. So also is the practice in the United States. District Courts in California, many district courts elsewhere, and in some of the state courts which have considered the question.

The district court in holding that both causes of action could not be tried by the jury ordered Williams to elect which issue should be tried. Williams contends that the court erred in so compelling him to elect before trial and that the case should be reversed so that the untried…