468
Kennedy, J., dissenting
In any event, the Court's ruling extends well beyond the Jones Act; it covers the whole spectrum of maritime litigation. Courts have recognized the forum non conveniens defense in a broad range of admiralty disputes: breach of marine insurance contract, Calavo Growers of Cal. v. Generali Belgium, 632 F. 2d 963 (CA2 1980); collision, Ocean Shelf Trading, Inc. v. Flota Mercante Grancolumbiana S. A., 638 F. Supp. 249 (SDNY 1986); products liability, Matson Navigation Co. v. Stal-Laval Turbin AB, 609 F. Supp. 579 (ND Cal. 1985); cargo loss, The Red Sea Ins. Co. v. S. S. Lucia Del Mar, 1983 A. M. C. 1630 (SDNY 1982), aff'd, 1983 A. M. C. 1631 (CA2 1983); and breach of contract for carriage, Galban Lobo Trading Co. v. Canadian Leader Ltd., 1963 A. M. C. 988 (SDNY 1958), to name a few. See Brief for Maritime Law Association of the United States as Amicus Curiae 12. In all of these cases, federal district courts will now hear forum non conveniens motions in the shadow of state courts that refuse to consider it. Knowing that upon dismissal a maritime plaintiff may turn around and sue in one of these state courts, see Chick Kam Choo v. Exxon Corp., 486 U. S. 140 (1988), a federal court is now in a most difficult position. May it overrule a forum non conveniens motion it otherwise would have granted, because the state forum is open? See Ikospentakis v. Thalassic S. S. Agency, 915 F. 2d 176, 180 (CA5 1990) (reversing the grant of plaintiff's voluntary dismissal motion, because the forum non conveniens defense was not available to defendants in the Louisiana court where plaintiff had also sued; refusing "to insist that these foreign appellants become guinea pigs in an effort to overturn Louisiana's erroneous rule"). Since the Court now makes forum non conveniens something of a derelict in maritime law, perhaps it is unconcerned that federal courts may now be required to alter their own forum non conveniens determinations to accommodate the policy of the State in which they sit. Under federal maritime principles, I should have
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