As a result of the loss of the French passenger liner Antilles after grounding on an uncharted rock in the Grenadine Islands in the West Indies, on 8 January 1971, the owners of the ship filed a petition for limitation of or exoneration from liability in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. A number of claimants against the owners, chiefly passengers in the ship at the time of loss, entered the limitation proceedings and moved the New York Court to transfer the case to the District of Puerto Rico. After the case had been so transferred, several claimants filed direct action suits against the owners and their insurers; these suits were stayed pending the outcome of the limitation proceedings.