United States Merchants' & Shippers' Ins. v. Elder Dempster & Co.

L. HAND, Cireuit Judge.

The actions were upon the breach of contracts of affreightment, probably made and to be performed outside the United States, though the record is too uncertain to make a finding. One plaintiff is a corporation of New York, the other of California, and the defendant is a British corporation, acting as ships’ agent for two lines of steamships. It has several places of business, one in the Port of New York, where eoneedodly its activities are so substantial and continuous as to make it “present” in the sense that it could there be sued. The only question, mooted in the…