Panama Mail Steamship Co. v. Vargas

This is a suit in admiralty brought in the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of California against a company owning and operating an American steamship as a common carrier, between ports in Central America and the port of San Francisco, to recover damages for an alleged assault constituting rape committed by an employee of the ship on a young woman while being carried thereon as a passenger. The plaintiff was given a decree, which the Circuit Court of Appeals' affirmed, 33 F. (2d) 894; and the case is here on certiorari.

The District Court delivered no opinion and…