Transportes Maritimos Do Estado v. Almeida

Background

Almeida, a seaman, sued Transportes Maritimos do Estado for unpaid wages in the federal court in southern New York. The defendant appeared and said it was a department of the Republic of Portugal, offered evidence, and claimed sovereign immunity from being sued. The district judge entered judgment for the seaman in a stipulated amount, issued a certificate under §238 of the Judicial Code, and allowed a direct writ of error to bring the case to this Court.

Reasoning

The core question was whether a claim that the defendant is a foreign sovereign creates the kind of federal jurisdictional question that allows a direct appeal under §238. The Court relied on a recent decision that held a sovereign-immunity claim does not present a §238 federal-jurisdiction question. The Court explained this rule applies whether immunity is raised because of the defendant’s character or because immunity is said to have been waived. Because the writ of error was improvidently allowed, the Supreme Court concluded it lacked jurisdiction to decide the case and ordered the case transferred to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Real world impact

The ruling is procedural: it means wage suits involving claims of foreign sovereign immunity cannot be taken straight to the Supreme Court under §238. Instead, those disputes proceed in the lower federal courts and then to the federal appeals court. The decision does not decide the underlying wage claim or the immunity issue on the merits; it only directs where the case must be considered next.