Bournias v. Atlantic Maritime Co., Ltd.
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
220 F.2d 152 (1955)
John Bournias (plaintiff) worked as a seaman for Atlantic Maritime Co., Ltd. (defendant) when the ship's registry changed from Panama to Honduras; his employment ended in December 1950. Two years later, he sued Atlantic Maritime in federal court under the Panama Labor Code for unpaid wages tied to the registry change, vacation, overtime, and holiday pay, plus penalties under federal law for failure to pay promptly. Atlantic Maritime argued the Panama Labor Code's own one-year statute of limitations, applicable to the wage articles at issue, barred the suit.
Whether, to determine if a foreign statute of limitations is procedural rather than substantive, a court should ask whether the limitation was specifically directed at the particular right being enforced.