Van Der Weyde v. Ocean Transport Co.

On Api*ii 18, 1931, appellant herein filed ihis libel in rein against the steamship Taigen Maru, her tackle, etc., bast'd upon a claim for personal injuries alleged to have been suffered by him on May 16, 1922, whilo aboard the respondent vessel on the high seas. The appellant at the time of his alleged injuries was a subject of Her Majesty, the Queen of the Netherlands, and a member of the crew, under Norwegian articles signed by him at Astoria, upon the respondent vessel (then the steamship Luise Nielsen) of Norwegian nationality and under the ownership of B. Stolt Nielsen & Co., Inc., a corporation of the Kingdom of Norway.

C. Staug Anderson acting consul of Norway at Seattle was allowed to intervene and file exceptive allegations in which he protested against the court taking jurisdiction on the ground that it was a dispute between a member of the crew of a Norwegian vessel and the master and owners of said vessel and according to the ship’s articles and the applicable law of Norway was a dispute to be decided by the Norwegian consul subject to appeal to the courts of Norway.

The District Court entered an order dismissing the libel which reads in part as follows :

“ * * s,…