Societe Des Chargeurs De L'Ouest Societe Anonyme v. United States

WOOLSEY, District Judge.

I hold both the Housatonie and the Basse Indre to blame for the collision hereinafter described.

I. The jurisdiction of this court in this suit is based on a special act of’ Congress, Private Law No. 43, enacted by the Sixty-Ninth Congress in its First Session and approved by the President on May 7, 1926 (44 Stat. 1470).

The necessity for a special act to found jurisdiction was due to the decision in the case of The Western Maid, 257 U. S. 419, 42 S. Ct. 159, 66 L. Ed. 299, for at the time of the collision the Housatonie was being operated by the United States Navy as a…