The Cokato

JurisdicciónArgentina
Fecha19 Noviembre 1924
Número de expedienteCase No. 71
EmisorFederal Court of Appeals (Argentina)
Argentina, Federal Court of Appeal of the Capital.
Case No. 71
Cía. Introductora de Buenos Aires
and
Capitan del Vapor Cokato.

Jurisdiction — Exemptions from — Public Ships — Vessels Engaged in Commerce — United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation.

The Facts.—This was a case involving the question whether a vessel owned by the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation was immune from process of the Argentine courts. The plaintiff sued for damage to a cargo of tobacco which he had shipped on the defendant's vessel, owned by the Emergency Fleet Corporation, and operated by the New York and Cuba S.S. Co. The defendant claimed that as the United States was the real owner of the vessel it was immune. The lower Court held for the plaintiff, disposing of the jurisdictional objection on the ground that the United States had nothing to do with the operation of the vessel, which was in the hands of the chartering company. On appeal,

Held: That the judgment must be affirmed, although the amount recoverable was altered. The Court's Opinion dealt chiefly with questions of maritime liability and the effect to be given the American Harter Act, but sustained the jurisdiction of the Argentine court despite the vessel's ownership. The Court pointed out that the United States courts had held1 the Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation to be separate and distinct from the United States2 and subject to the jurisdiction of the courts in that country.3

1 The case cited was Sloan Shipyards Corporation v. United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation (1 May, 1922), 258 U.S. 549, the leading case in the United States denying the Emergency Fleet Corporation governmental immunity. See also Cox v. Lykes Bros. et al (19 February, 1924), 237 N.Y. 376; and Manufacturers Land & Improvement Co. v. United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation (28 September, 1922), 284 Fed. 231, affirmed, without discussion of this point, in 264 U.S. 250.

2 See also Ministerio de Marina de Los E.U.A. v. S. A. Dodero Hnos. (30 July, 1924), 141 Fallos, 127...

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