b4 SETTLEMENT FOR ACCIDENTS TO AMERICAN SEAMEN

the injury was suffered, and which was owned in the District of
Columbia. Recovery was therefore allowed under the death act of
that jurisdiction. (United States Shipping Board E. F. Corp. ».
Greenwald (C. C. A. 1927), 16 Fed. (2d) 948.)

Foreign Seamen

Section 33 of the Jones (merchant marine) act of 1920 is held to
apply to employees of foreign corporations doing business in the
United States (Stewart ». Pacific Steam Nav. Co. (1924), 3 Fed. (2d)
329; and to injuries to seamen on foreign vessels injured while in an
American port, The Apurimac (1925), 7 Fed. (2d) 741); for while
“the jurisdiction and laws of a nation accompany her ships not only
over the high seas, but into ports and harbors, or wheresoever else
they may water borne” (United States v. Rodgers (1893), 150 U. S.
249, 265, 14 Sup. Ct. 109), “in the present state of international
intercourse and commerce, all persons in time of peace have the
right to resort to the tribunals of the nation where they may happen
to be, for the protection of their rights.” (Benedict Adm. 1925,
sec. 82.)
For “where a foreign merchant vessel comes into our ports, like a
foreign citizen coming into our territory, it subjects itself to the
jurisdiction of this country.” (Patterson ». Bark Eudora (1903),
190 U. S. 169, 23 Sup. Ct. 821)

Summary

The early developments of maritime law that controlled recovery
for injury to seamen up to the opening of the present decade have
been largely modified by the enactment of statutes that affect cases
in which the rule of fellow service was formerly excluded. Negligence
of the master or other member of the crew is basis for an action for
damages, while improper or defective equipment not only give ground
for an action in admiralty as for unseaworthiness, but would also
base a suit in the forms of the common law in line with the terms
of the Federsl statute governing railroad employees. No repeal is
made by any law of the provision relative to maintenance, cure, and
the payment of wages to the end of the voyage; and in case of death,
suit may be brought under the railroad act, the death act of 1920, or,
locality permitting, under State laws.
, No redress beyond the maritime allowance of maintenance, etc.
is available in any case in the absence of proved negligence or wrongful
act, established before the court alone in admiralty proceedings, or
by a jury trial in an action at common law.
State courts have jurisdiction concurrently with the Federal courts,
except as to actions under the death act of 1920, where proceedings
can be initiated only in the United States district courts.
In the absence of treaty provisions to the contrary, the laws of
the United States may be availed of by foreign seamen in American
waters seeking redress in courts of the United States.