William R. Russell v. William Cunningham, William R. Russell and Anna L. Russell v. United States of America

William R. Russell is the sole appellant from an order of the District Court of Guam refusing to set aside a judgment of dismissal entered by that Court for Jack of prosecution, and, with his wife, is an appellant from a judgment of the District Court for the Northern District of California dismissing a complaint filed in that Court. By order of this Court, both appeals were heard together. We shall first consider the Guam appeal, which was taken from an order denying appellant’s motion under Rule 60(b), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. to set aside a judgment of dismissal.

It appears that appellant was a member of the crew of the U.S.N.S. Morton which had docked at Guam. On April 11, 1954, appellant in company with another crew member went to the Cliff House, a restaurant club on Guam which apparently was an instrumentality of the United States, for the purpose of having dinner. While there he became involved in an altercation with Cunningham, who at that time was a civil service employee of the United States through the Military Sea Transportation Service, Department of the Navy, and who at somel prior time had been an officer on the U.S.N.S. Morton. Appellant and…