Steele

Plaintiff, a junior engineer of The S. SCape Blanco, has moved to remand this cause to the State Court, from whence defendant had previously caused its removal here. The action is one to recover damages for personal injuries claimed to have been caused plaintiff on the Cape Blanco due to the negligence of defendant, whom plaintiff seeks to hold responsible as his employer at the time. The Jones Act, 41 Stat. 1007 , 46 U.S.C.A. § 688 .

Removal of the cause to this court was accomplished on the ground that the claim of the plaintiff that defendant was his employer was colorable, if not fraudulent, and for the purpose of ousting federal jurisdiction. The removal petition asserted that plaintiff fraudulently alleged in his complaint that defendant was his employer in order to maintain the action in the State Court pursuant to the Jones Act, supra. The petition further alleged that in truth and fact, the defendant was not plaintiff’s employer, and that consequently the cause was in reality a simple common-law action-for negligence and therefore, because of diversity of citizenship, of federal cognizance. It was further charged in the petition that the defendant was in fact the agent…