Law Commons^™

Us Supreme Court Bars Punitive Damages In Unseaworthiness Claims, Craig H. Allen

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To appreciate the reach of the Court's decision on punitive damages for unseaworthiness claims, it is important to understand the federal courts' steady expansion of the class of workers who now qualify as "seamen," the class of floating vessels and structures that now qualify as "vessels," and the strict liability standard for determining whether a vessel is seaworthy.

Shipping Company Ordered To Pay Almost $1m For Demoting Whistleblower, Craig H. Allen

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The US Department of Labor's (DOL) Administrative Review Board recently affirmed a DOL administrative law judge (ALJ) decision in favor of the former master of the Horizon Trader who had filed a complaint alleging that the Horizon violated the Seaman's Protection Act by discharging him in retaliation for making protected safety reports to the US Coast Guard and American Bureau of Shipping. In Loftus v. Horizon Lines, Inc. (DOL ARB Case No. 16-082), the board upheld the ALJ's award of $655,1998.90 in back pay plus interest; $10,000 in compensatory damages for emotional distress; $225,000 in punitive damages, and an unspecified …

President Trump's Emerging Maritime Policy, Craig H. Allen

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President Donald Trump was elected on a pledge to make America great again. Although he did not enter office with a comprehensive national maritime policy, the elements of such a policy have begun to emerge. Since taking office on January 20, 2017, Trump and the Republican controlled 115th Congress have enacted broad tax reforms and significantly increased defense spending, the first step toward rebuilding the US Navy to 355 ships. The 115th Congress also invoked the Congressional Review Act of 1996 to overturn 14 rules issued by federal agencies during President Obama's term.

Admiralty's In Extremis Doctrine: What Can Be Learned From The Restatement (Third) Of Torts Approach?, Craig H. Allen

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The in extremis doctrine has been part of maritime collision law in the U.S. for more than one hundred and sixty years. One would expect that a century and a half would provide ample time for mariners and admiralty practitioners and judges to master the doctrine. Alas, some of the professional nautical commentary and even an occasional collision case suggest that the doctrine is often misunderstood or misapplied. A fair number of admiralty writers fail to understand that the in extremis doctrine is not a single "in extremis rule," but rather several rules, all of which are related to the …

Getting The "Story" Out: Teaching Admiralty At The University Of Washington, Craig H. Allen

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I count myself fortunate indeed to be a law teacher and to have the privilege of teaching admiralty to the next generation of attorneys. My good fortune is compounded by the fact that I teach admiralty (and several other maritime law courses) at the University of Washington, a major research university with a complementary graduate level School of Marine Affairs. There is no finer venue for studying maritime law than the state of Washington. By any measure, Washington is among the most “marine” and most trade-dependent states in the nation, and it has long been home to a distinguished maritime …

Taking Narrow Channel Collision Prevention Seriously To More Effectively Manage Marine Transportation System Risk, Craig H. Allen

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This Article locates the narrow channel rule in the larger context of risk management in confined waters. It begins by examining the risks posed by vessel navigation in narrow channels and fairways in the United States and the risk management measures employed to eliminate or reduce those risks, including the narrow channel rule in the applicable rules of the road. The Article then identifies problems with the existing rule and examines several alternatives to address the problems. The Article concludes that mariners deserve clearer guidance on how to identify the waters where Rule 9 applies than they have so far …

Revisiting The Thames Formula: The Evolving Role Of The International Maritime Organization And Its Member States In Implementing The 1982 Law Of The Sea Convention, Craig H. Allen

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Despite the findings that marine casualty rates have "plummeted" and the safety record of the oil transport industry has "significantly improved," high visibility pollution incidents in the last decade like those involving the tankers Erika and Prestige off the coast of Europe, together with the chronic problems of illegal and unregulated fishing and dismal labor conditions for many seafarers led a United Nations-chartered consultative group of leading international organization representatives to conclude that there is an "urgent" need to improve State performance in the implementation and enforcement of the international maritime legal regime.

There is less agreement, however, in how …

Hiding Behind "Tradition"? Should U.S. Vessel Traffic Centers Exercise Greater Direction And Control Over Vessels In Their Areas?, Craig H. Allen

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In the alermath of the 2007 COSCO BUSAN allision and oil spill, some asked whether United States Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) operators monitoring the developing incident should have intervened explicitly to wam the vessel or even order it to take avoiding action.

The controversy called to mind a speech by a former IMO secretary-general in which he suggested that those resisting greater shore-based control were "hiding behind tradition." In its investigation of the COSCO BUSAN incident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) urged the Coast Guard to better define its expectations regarding the exercise of VTS control authority …

Introduction, The Osceola After 100 Years: Its Meaning And Effect On Maritime Personal Injury Law In The United States, Craig Allen

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A century ago the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in The Osceola [189 U.S. 158 (1903)], announcing four legal propositions that controlled personal injury claims by seamen at the time. On the 100th anniversary of the Court's decision, the four admiralty law professors contributing to this symposium take the opportunity to critically examine the Court's renowned decision, Congress' responses to the decision, and the effect of both The Osceola's four propositions and the responsive legislation on the remedies available to injured maritime workers in the 21st century.

In the first of the three articles that follow, Professor …

Limitation Of Liability, Craig Allen

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From the list of "problems" with the Limitation Act in the U.S. that are within the federal courts' power to resolve, I have elected to discuss three. Necessarily, the coverage of each problem will be brief. After a short summary of the Limitation Act's principal features, the essay examines the recurring confusion over the relevance of unseaworthiness in limitation actions. Second, it highlights the need to update the courts' choice of law doctrine for limitation issues. Finally, it turns to an issue that is only beginning to emerge, and one which the federal courts may yet save from idiosyncratic precedents …

Federalism In The Era Of International Standards: Federal And State Government Regulation Of Merchant Vessels In The United States (Part Iv), Craig H. Allen

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No abstract provided.

Federalism In The Era Of International Standards: Federal And State Government Regulation Of Merchant Vessels In The United States (Part Iii), Craig H. Allen

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No abstract provided.

Federalism In The Era Of International Standards: Federal And State Government Regulation Of Merchant Vessels In The United States (Part I), Craig H. Allen

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In examining federalism issues relevant to merchant vessels, this article will distinguish between those laws and regulations governing liability for harm and those which regulate safety. Federalism questions arise most frequently in the former, private, maritime law domain, when courts are called upon to determine judicial jurisdiction and the extent to which state law may be applied to adjudicate liability and damages in cases falling within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. Less frequently, the federalism debate focuses on public maritime law, when states seek to regulate commercial vessel safety or vessel-source pollution.

This article will begin with an examination of …

Federalism In The Era Of International Standards: Federal And State Government Regulation Of Merchant Vessels In The United States (Part Ii), Craig H. Allen

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No abstract provided.

The Administrative Claim Prerequisite To Suit Against The United States Under The Admiralty Jurisdiction Extension Act, Craig H. Allen

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The Admiralty Jurisdiction Extension Act (AJEA) confers federal admiralty jurisdiction over all causes of action for vessel-caused damage done or consummated on land. In extending admiralty jurisdiction to land-based damage, the Act not only opened admiralty courts to a new class of litigants, it also enlarged the range of possible claims which could be brought against the United States under the Suits in Admiralty Act (SAA) or the Public Vessels Act (PVA). At the same time, however, an important prerequisite to suit against the government was incorporated into the AJEA that is absent from the SAA or PVA: where an …

Is The Crime Of Piracy Obsolete?, Edwin D. Dickinson

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"A few years ago it might have been surmised that in America at least a good deal of the old code in respect to piracy had passed from the law in reserve into the law in history. The important cases were nearly all one hundred years old or more....

There have been recent events, however, which challenge the assumption that the law of piracy is chiefly of historical significance. The country had hardly entered upon the new period of national prohibition when the rum ships descended upon its coasts... There sprang up, in consequence, to prey upon the rum ships, …

International Aspects Of Prohibition Enforcement, Edwin D. Dickinson

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The Eighteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution prohibits "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes." 40 Stat. io5O, 1941. In the National Prohibition Cases. 253 U. S. 350, 386, the amendment was said to be operative "throughout the entire territorial limits of the United States." As originally enacted, the National Prohibition Act did not in terms define its territorial field, but a supplemental provision afterwards enacted declares that the act "shall apply not only to …

Anglo-Saxon' And 'Teutonic' Standards Of Justice, Edson R. Sunderland

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In The Kaiser Wilhelm II, 230 Fed. Rep. 717, the British shipbuilding firm of Harland & Wolff filed a libel against the steamship Kaiser Wilhelm II, owned by the North German Lloyd, a German corporation, for repairs made on the ship in libelant's shipyard in England. This suit was commenced before the United States entered the war, and the court made an order dismissing the libel on the ground that Great Britain and Germany had each enacted laws forbidding its subjects from making any payments to the subjects of the other, and as these enactments were merely declaratory of the …

State Legislation Extending To Navigable Waters, Ralph W. Aigler

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In Southern Pacific Company v. Jensen, 37 Sup. Ct. -, decided May 21, 1917, the Supreme Court announces a decision in some respects of far reaching importance. It was held therein, Mr. Justice HOLMEs dissenting, that the WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT of the State of New York did not support an award to the widow and children of a workman killed on board a ship of the Company while at the pier in New York City. Clearly the terms of the New York act covered the case, unless the fact that the accident occurred on navigable waters of the United States …

State Legislation Extending To Navigable Waters, Ralph W. Aigler

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In Southern Pacific Company v. Jensen, 37 Sup. Ct. -, decided May 21, 1917, the Supreme Court announces a decision in some respects of far reaching importance. It was held therein, Mr. Justice HOLMEs dissenting, that the WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT of the State of New York did not support an award to the widow and children of a workman killed on board a ship of the Company while at the pier in New York City. Clearly the terms of the New York act covered the case, unless the fact that the accident occurred on navigable waters of the United States …

Admiralty Jurisdiction And State Waters, John B. Waite

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The case of Ex parte Boyer1 closes with the statement that it "does not raise the question whether the admiralty jurisdiction of the district court extends to waters wholly within the body of a state, and from which vessels cannot so pass as to carry on commerce between places in such state and places in another state or in a foreign country; and no opinion is intended to be intimated as to jurisdiction in such a case." Nor does any other case appear directly to intimate such an opinion, unless it be that of Stapp v. Clyde2 wherein a state …