Jung Hyun Sook, Claimants-Appellants v. Great Pacific Shipping Company and Lasco Shipping Company, Complainants-Appellees

This case involves the notice of claim requirements of 46 U.S.C. § 185 , which allows a vessel owner to petition for a limitation of liability within six months after a claimant gives the owner a “written notice of claim.” The issue is whether the filing of a law suit in Korea against an alleged agent of the vessel owner for damages sustained in a maritime accident constituted “written notice of claim” under § 185 sufficient to begin the six month statute of limitations applicable to limitation of liability actions. We hold that it does not.

On February 13, 1977, the ship M/V ROSE S and its crew of thirty-one seamen were lost at sea. In February and March of 1977, Great Pacific Shipping Company (“Great Pacific”), a Liberian corporation and the vessel owner, and Lasco Shipping Company (“Lasco”), an Oregon corporation and managing agent of the ROSE S, signed settlement and release agreements with the survivors of thirty of the crewmen. The only parties not entering into a settlement were the personal representatives of the ship’s radio operator.

These representatives filed suit (“Korean suit”) against Lasco Shipping Corporation of Busan, Korea (“Busan”), the Korean sub-agent of…