American Dredging Co. v. Miller

This case presents the question whether, in admiralty-cases filed in a state court under the Jones Act, 46 U. S. C. App. § 688, and the “saving to suitors clause,” 28 U. S. C. § 1333(1), federal law pre-empts state law regarding the doctrine of forum non conveniens.

I

Respondent William Robert Miller, a resident of Mississippi, moved to Pennsylvania to seek employment in 1987. He was hired by petitioner American Dredging Company, a Pennsylvania corporation with its principal place of business in New Jersey, to work as a seaman aboard the MV John R., a tug operating on the Delaware River. In the…