Layne & Bowler Corp. v. United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corp.

Appeal by the United States from a decree for libelants, growing out of a libel in rem and in personam, for the recovery of an alleged duplicate payment of freight for the transportation of certain pig iron shipped on April 11, 1921, by steamer Anna E. Morse, consigned to the order of libelants, from Mobile, Ala., to Los Angeles, Cal. The suit was brought under Suits in Admiralty Act March 9, 1920 ( 41 Stat. 525 [46 USCA §§ 741-752; Comp. St. §§ 1251¼-1251¼k]). The decree was against the United States. As against the Fleet Corporation, the lihel was dismissed. The shippers were Tuffli Bros. Pig Iron & Coke Company. Layne & Bowler Corporation and Bayer-Rothgeb Company were the owners, and they or their assigns were consignees of the freight shipped. At the time the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, for the United States, held the record title to the ship; the equitable ownership being in the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation or its nominee, the United States Transport Company, the last-named company then having the management and possession of the ship.

Negotiable bills of lading were issued by the United States Transport Company, providing, among other…