http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Albert-Commette
In Memory of
Albert S Commette
April 21, 1911 – October 21, 2011
Albert Sheehan Commette of Port St. Lucie West, Florida and Mantoloking, New Jersey, passed away Thursday, October 20, 2011 at the age of 100.
Funeral services will be held at Holy Family Church, Port St. Lucie on Friday, October 28 at 1000 AM. A celebration of life service is planned for the spring at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bay Head, New Jersey.
Al was a well known Maritime Lawyer and the last survivor of six children.
Left to cherish his memory are his wife of 75 years, Nikki; his five children, Gail McShane, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; son, Denis Commette, and wife, Carol, of Mantoloking, New Jersey; daughter, Susan Berry, and husband, Cal, of Port St. Lucie West, Florida; daughter, Nina Corby, of Georgetown, Washington, DC; and son, Peter Commette, Esq., and wife, Connie, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; 15 grandchildren and 24 great grand children.
Born in 1911 in Newport, Rhode Island, Al attended De La Salle High School in Newport, lettering in four sports and was captain of the debating team. He graduated at 16 in 1927, receiving his school’s highest honors, gold medals for English, Religion, Latin, Science, Mathematics, and Overall Excellence, as well as a Knights of Columbus scholarship for college. He graduated from Manhattan College in 1931, with honors, and from Fordham Law School in 1934.
Mr. Commette was admitted to practice law in the State of New York in 1934, and began his career as in house defense counsel for the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, New York City. After 20 years, he left to become a partner for almost 30 years in the New York City law firm of Budd, Quencer, Brown and Commette, eventually becoming Commette, Quencer and Annunziato. He retired from over 50 years of practice as of counsel to Heidell, Pittoni and Moran, a firm headed by one of his former partners.
During the course of his career, Mr. Commette was one of the first inductees into the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers. He was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1960. He was a member of the Maritime Lawyers’ Association, and was the founding Chair for The Committee on Stevedoring and Terminal Operations. He was a Proctor in Admiralty, the highest rating for a member of the Maritime Law Association, and was an AV rated attorney in the Martindale-Hubbell directory for attorneys, its highest ranking.
Mr. Commette was a litigator in many of the major maritime incidents, such as the 25 July 1956 crash between the MS Stockholm and the Italian liner Andrea Doria. The Andrea Doria was approaching the coast of Nantucket, bound for New York City, and collided with the east-bound MS Stockholm in what became one of history’s most infamous maritime disasters.
Mr. Commette was lead attorney for the Universal Terminal & Stevedoring Corporation in the Bernard Screen case, one of the seminal cases that extended the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act’s $500 per package limitation to stevedores under the Bill of Lading.
He was a principal litigant in negotiating multiple settlements in a major oil refinery explosion in Texas and was particularly proud that, even though he worked for the defense, he was able to secure immediate, significant payments to those injured and the families of those killed, without prejudice to their rights to be compensated for more at a later date.
While law was his day job, Al was passionate about sailing and tennis, which he learned at an early age growing up in Newport. He spent many years cruising on his sailboat with his beloved Nikki and extended family. He started the tennis program in the early fifties at the Mantoloking Yacht Club, Mantoloking, New Jersey. Al loved to teach young children the basics of tennis, a vocation he continued until the age of 93. A trophy is presented each year in his honor at the Mantoloking Yacht Club to the child who best demonstrates the love and sportsmanship of the game.
Al will be missed by all who knew him
In lieu of flowers, donations in Al’s memory may be made to Save Barnegat Bay at www.savebarnegatbay.org
An on-line memorial to Mr. Commette may be found at www.aycockportstlucie.com
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Commette, Albert Sheehan [MC1931 RIP]
Guestbook: http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/DignityMemorial/guestbook.aspx?n=albert-commette&pid=154251006
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