Bank Line, Ltd. v. United States

L. HAND, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment for the plaintiff in an action brought under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 41(20), to recover a fine unlawfully imposed for allowing the escape of an alien seaman. The facts are as follows. While the steamer “Trent-bank”, of which the plaintiff was the owner, was in Philadelphia on December 16, 1929, the immigration officer in charge at that port served notice upon the master to detain a Chinese seaman during her stay at all United States ports where she might thereafter touch. At Baltimore, the vessel’s next port of call, the seaman…