2
The Regent. Latvijas Kugniecibas Sabiedriba v. The Regent et al. 35 F. Supp. 985 (1940). Because the parties subsequently reached an agreement for the operation of the vessel, the court reopened the case to permit the appointment of Joseph G. Kearns and Charles Recht as joint trustees to operate the vessel, and of Daniel F. Young, Inc., as operating agent of the trustees, all such persons having been chosen by the parties. “On August 8, 1942, a petition was filed on behalf of Alfred Bilmanis, as Minister Plenipotentiary, Envoy Extraordinary, and Consul General of Latvia in the United States, by his attorney, which petition recites that it was made under the authority of the treaty between the United States and the Republic of Latvia; that the Regent was owned by one Jaris Freimanis, a Latvian national and resident of Riga, Latvia; that on or about June 17, 1940, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics seized the Republic of Latvia, and that since said date the people thereof have not had a free choice in the making of decisions respecting their property; that on June 22, 1941, the armed forces of the German Reich entered the Republic of Latvia and by force of arms expelled the semblance of government which had wrongfully been set tip in the Republic of Latvia by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It is further recited that at the present time the Republic of Latvia and its people are free from the mandates and duress of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but are coerced under the duress of the armed forces and officials of the German Reich; that Latvia is recognized by the United States of America as an existing, independent, political entity; that the United States does not recognize the Soviet invasion and forceful annexation of Latvia, and did not sanction the attempt to include it in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and that the United States Government still does not recognize the absorption of Latvia nor the legality of the so-called naturalization [nationalization] acts or decrees affecting property in the Republic of Latvia.” Since the Regent had been torpedoed and Freimanis had died, petitioner asked for the dismissal of the libel, the termination of the trusteeship of Recht and others, and the payment of freight earned and insurance collected to the administrator of the estate of Freimanis. The petition was denied by Judge Galston on November 6, 1942, in part because petitioner had failed to dispel a previous admission by his counsel that Freimanis was not a Latvian national but was a naturalized German citizen. The trustees were instructed to hold the trust fund subject to the orders of the court. Cf., The Regent, 47 F. Supp. 995 (1942), from which the above quotation is made.
