Pershing Auto Rentals, Inc. v. William C. Gaffney

JOHN R. BROWN, Circuit Judge.

It has taken 109 years for this case to materialize. For the first time in this long continuance of the Act concerning limitation of shipowner’s liability 1 which, for our purposes, remains the same as originally enacted in 1851, a simple question is posed. In a multiple-claim-inadequate-fund limitation proceeding may the admiralty court modify its traditional injunction to permit some of the claimants to establish their claims initially in a state common law court?

Before we get to that we must take notice of a possible lack of jurisdiction. The order under review…