Buttner

The appellant, a seaman, while at sea and employed on a vessel of the Pacific Shipping Company, a California corporation, received personal injuries through the alleged negligence of the shipping company. To recover damages therefor, *106 he filed in the court below a libel in personam against the stockholders of the shipping company, stating therein the names of the stockholders and the number of shares held by each, alleging the injury he had received through the negligence of the shipping company, and alleging further that on April 3, 1913, he had filed a complaint in the superior court of the state of California to recover damages for his injuries, that on September IS, 1914, he had recovered a judgment against the Pacific Shipping Company therefor, in the sum of $5,000. and costs, and that prior to the date of the judgment the shipping company had become bankrupt, and was without property. Exceptions- to the libel were sustained, and the libel was dismissed on the ground that the liability of the appellees had been merged in the judgment for $5,000, which the appellant had recovered, and that the present suit cannot be regarded as a suit upon the original un-liquidated claim…