KYLE Podziewski has requested the federal court to remand to the CNMI Superior Court the negligence lawsuit he filed against vessel operators Cabras Marine Corporation and Saipan Crew Boats Inc.
Attorney David Banes, who represents Podziewski, said the defendants have invoked “admiralty or maritime jurisdiction.”
“Here, neither federal question jurisdiction [nor] diversity jurisdiction exists,” Banes said.
Diversity jurisdiction requires “complete diversity,” meaning that the citizenship of each plaintiff is different from the citizenship of each defendant, Banes added.
For their part, the vessel operators’ attorneys, Robert T. Torres and Joaquin Arriola, opposed the motion to remand the lawsuit to the local trial court, and asked the federal court to deny it.
“The Plaintiff alleges in his complaint that he was injured while on a federally owned and operated vessel. However, conspicuously absent from this lawsuit is the United States, the owner of the vessel. As the Plaintiff was injured on a federally owned and operated vessel, the District Court of the NMI has exclusive and original jurisdiction over claims … in maritime and admiralty related to such injuries,” the defense attorneys said.
The vessel operators likewise denied Podziewski’s claims of negligence when he got injured while climbing the ladder of a prepositioning ship in January. The defense lawyers also denied any liability for their clients.
They said Podziewski “failed to mitigate his damages,” and his “claims are barred in whole or in part by abandoning or rejecting recommended medical treatment of his condition.”
Podziewski’s complaint was initially filed in Superior Court but was later transferred by the defendants to the District Court for the NMI.
Podziewski filed a negligence complaint against the vessel operators on Aug. 6, 2024.
The plaintiff alleged the following:
The defendants “jointly provided ferry services for passengers and cargo transportation between the ships of the Maritime Prepositioning force in the Marianas at their locations of anchorage and shore.”
On or about Jan. 26, 2024, the plaintiff traveled aboard the Leatherneck to “visit one of the prepositioning ships anchored a distance from Saipan’s shores.”
When they reached the federal vessel, the plaintiff climbed onto a ladder “attached permanently to the rear of the prepositioning ship” and “was no longer on the Leatherneck.”
While on the ladder on the prepositioning ship, the plaintiff said his leg was injured when the Leatherneck was maneuvered to “keep the two vessels pressed against and/or close to each other,” and “one foot and leg … were caught between the Leatherneck and the Prepositioning ship.”
On Sept. 12, 2024, the vessel operators removed the lawsuit from the CNMI Superior Court to the NMI District Court. They said “the NMI District Court has the same maritime and admiralty jurisdiction of other federal district courts, including over this matter wherein the Plaintiff alleges he was injured in navigable waters of the United States off of Saipan while attempting to move from a vessel allegedly operated by defendants to a federally owned vessel.”
