Document Type

Response or Comment

Publication Date

1-1918

Abstract

In The Kaiser Wilhelm II, 230 Fed. Rep. 717, the British shipbuilding firm of Harland & Wolff filed a libel against the steamship Kaiser Wilhelm II, owned by the North German Lloyd, a German corporation, for repairs made on the ship in libelant's shipyard in England. This suit was commenced before the United States entered the war, and the court made an order dismissing the libel on the ground that Great Britain and Germany had each enacted laws forbidding its subjects from making any payments to the subjects of the other, and as these enactments were merely declaratory of the common law of nations, neutrality would be best preserved by applying them to litigation in a neutral court. This order was reversed on appeal, for the reason that the vessel had been enabled to seek protection in an American port through the very repairs the libelant had made, and the lien which the libelant had upon the vessel would be lost if the cause were dismissed. 246 Fed. Rep. 786.

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