United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Street v. Shipowners' Assn., 263 U.S. 334 (1923)

Street v. Shipowners' Association of the Pacific Coast

No. 156

Argued November 15, 1923

Decided November 26, 1923

263 U.S. 334

Syllabus

Plaintiff, alleging that defendants, as organizations of shipowners, controlled all American vessels in the merchant service operating between the ports of the Pacific Coast in the United States, and between such ports and foreign ports, and collectively employed all seamen engaged in that commerce, attacked the regulations adopted by defendants to govern such employments upon the

Page 263 U. S. 335

grounds that they dealt with matters covered by the Shipping Commissioners Act and other acts of Congress amendatory and supplemental thereof, trenched upon the exclusive power of Congress to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, and violated the rights of the plaintiff and other seamen by imposing undue restrictions upon their opportunities to secure engagements, and interfered with competition between them. Upon a motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action and for lack of jurisdiction, the district court, expressing the opinion that the regulations did not violate the act above mentioned or the Anti-Trust Act, and that the plaintiff had no standing to seek the relief prayed, entered a decree dismissing the bill.

Held that the decree was not appealable directly to this Court under § 238, Jud.Code, but should be transferred to the circuit court of appeals under § 238a. P. 263 U. S. 340.

Cause transferred to circuit court of appeals.

Appeal from a decree of the district court which, on motion, dismissed the bill in a suit to restrain the appellees from enforcing rules adopted by them to regulate the employment of seamen.

Page 263 U. S. 337