Long v. General Petroleum Corp.

KNIGHT, J.

The defendant, a foreign corporation authorized by this state to transact herein intrastate business, made a motion in the above-entitled action to change the place of trial thereof from the city and county of San Francisco to the county of Los Angeles upon the ground that it was and is a resident of the latter county and has its principal offices and place of business therein. The motion was denied and it has appealed from the order made in that behalf. We find no error in the trial court’s ruling. .

The action is one for damages instituted under the authority of a federal statute known as the Jones Act (see sec. 33, Merchant Marine Act of June 5, 1920, chap. 250, IT. S. C. A., title 46, sec. 688), it being alleged in the complaint that during the course of plaintiff’s employment as a fireman aboard the defendant’s tanker “Lebee” and while the ship was moored at a dock at West Portland, Oregon, he sustained personal injuries which were proximately caused by his employer’s negligence.

It is well settled that state courts have concurrent jurisdiction with federal courts in the enforcement of such a right of action

(Engel

v.

Davenport,

271 U. S. 33 [46 Sup. Ct. 410, 70 L. Ed. 813] ;

Panama R. R. Co.

v.

Vasquez,

271 U. S. 557 [46 Sup. Ct. 596, 70 L. Ed. 1085]); furthermore that if the federal jurisdiction be invoked, the action must be brought, as provided in said act, in the court of the district in which the employer resides or in which his principal office is located, and that if the action be brought in a state court the venue must be determined in accordance with the law of the state wherein the action is instituted.

(Bainbridge

v.

Merchants etc. Transp. Co.,

287 U. S. 278 [53 Sup. Ct. 159, 77 L. Ed. 302].) Section 395 of the California Code of Civil Procedure, governing the place of trial of personal actions against nonresidents, provides that “if none of the defendants reside in the state . . . the action may be tried in any county which the plaintiff may designate'in his