A NEW ORLEANS federal court ruled
the sailors, either killed or injured aboard the USS
Fitzgerald after a June 17, 2017 collision with the 2,854-TEU
ACX Crystal did not have
jurisdiction to sue Japanese
shipowner NYK and dismissed their
complaint.
"NYK Line's contacts with
the United States are not so continuous and systematic as to render this an
exceptional case in which a nonresident corporation is essentially 'at home' in
a place other than its place of incorporation or principal place of
business," wrote Judge
Lance Africk.
"NYK Line cannot be deemed
'at home' in every country where it conducts business," he said, reported
Oslo's Trade Winds.Forty-two injured sailors and the families of seven deceased
sailors sued NYK Line in New Orleans federal court in November 2019, seeking
more than US$260 million in damages on the collision with the Arleigh
Burke-class destroyer 77 nautical miles southwest of Tokyo.
The families of the deceased sued
under the Death on the High Seas Act, alleging the small containership did not
abide by rules and failed to blast its horn five times and never attempted to
evade the warship.
The sailors' attorney, David Schloss of Koonz
McKenney Johnson & DePaolis,
said they intend to appeal. He said that NYK applied a "double
standard" by litigating matters in US courts, then arguing they cannot be
subject to them.
Source : HKSG / Illustration : BBC + YouTube.
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