Noel v. Linea Aeropostal Venezolana
Noel v. Linea Aeropostal Venezolana
Opinion of the Court
The action before us, based on the diversity jurisdiction of the court below, was brought “at law” as one of a series of suits commenced by the plaintiffs for damages for the death of Marshal L. Noel in an airplane crash at sea. Thus see Noel v. Linea Aeropostal Venezolana, 2 Cir., 247 F.2d 677, 66 A.L.R.2d 997, cert. denied 355 U.S. 907, 78 S.Ct. 334, 2 L.Ed.2d 262; Noel v. Airponents, Inc., D.C.N.J., 169 F.Supp. 348; Noel v. United Aircraft Corp., D.C.Del., 191 F.Supp. 557; Noel v. Linea Aeropostal Venezolana, Curtiss-Wright Corp., and Lockheed Aircraft Corp., D.C.S.D.N.Y., Adm. 194-61. The district court dismissed this action on the ground that the admiralty court was the sole forum available to plaintiff.
It will be noted that another of plaintiffs’ suits, brought on the admiralty side of the court below,, is there pending.
Thus the plaintiffs are seeking to press the bifurcation of the court below into “sides” to advance successive theories of recovery of what is a single cause of action. In Bergeron v. Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, 2 Cir., 299 F.2d 78, we dismissed as interlocutory an appeal from a similar decision that admiralty had sole jurisdiction; and the same principle would seem applicable here to support the conclusion that there is no separate action available “at law.” The ease of transfer from admiralty to the civil side and vice versa, to which we have often adverted, as in, e. g., McAfoos v. Canadian Pacific Steamships, Limited, 2 Cir., 243 F.2d 270, and cases cited at page 272, cert. denied 355 U.S. 823, 78 S.Ct. 32, 2 L.Ed.2d 39, makes the recognition of separate actions merely to assert differing legal theories quite out of place.
Affirmed, with costs to the defendant.
. Of course this will be yet more obvious if pending plans of the Advisory Committees on Admiralty and Civil Buies for merger of the admiralty and civil rules materialize.
. Defendant’s motion to strike plaintiffs’ appendix from their brief is denied as a futile and unnecessary gesture; defendant is fully protected by the award of costs which we make in its favor.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Ruth M. NOEL and William H. Frantz, Executors of the Estate of Marshal L. Noel, and Sharon Noel and Marcia Noel, minors by their natural guardian, Ruth M. Noel, Patricia N. Reinhart and Ruth M. Noel in her own right v. LINEA AEROPOSTAL VENEZOLANA
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published