Charles Evans Whittaker

“ Whether jurisdiction over a res in an action in rem may be conferred by consent of its owner, given either before or after the action has been brought, upon a court that does not have territorial jurisdiction or custody of the res we need not decide, for the question here is not such, but, rather, it is simply whether a District Court is empowered by § 1404 (a) to transfer such an action to a district in which the libellant did not have the right to bring it, independently of the will or wishes of the claimant-respondent. ”

“ The Court's opinion says that, because the claim in personam might have been brought in the Memphis forum, it is a mistake to say that 'the entire civil action must remain in the inconvenient New Orleans forum.' But respondent's motion did not ask transfer of only the claim in personam, if indeed the court could have severed the two claims and have transferred one and kept the other-a matter not at all dealt with in the Court's opinion. ”

“ Indeed, the absence of liability of the owner of a vessel does not necessarily exonerate the vessel itself. [15] If, for example, a vessel under bareboat charter damages another as the result of the negligence of her crew, the vessel is liable in rem even though an action in personam would not lie against her owner. [16] Likewise, the right of one damaged by the wrong of a vessel to proceed against her follows her into the hands of an innocent purchaser, although the latter is not liable in personam. ”