Admiralty Commons^™

Tarrification Of The Coastwise Trade Laws, Keith E. Diggs

Michigan Law Review

The coastwise trade laws prohibit foreign vessels and mariners from transporting goods or passengers between American ports. These anticompetitive laws punish American producers and consumers yet barely sustain a dwindling merchant marine. Every attempt to repeal the laws encounters insurmountable political resistance. Reformers of the coastwise trade laws, then, should instead try to convert the prohibition on foreign involvement into a tariff.

A Sea Of Confusion: The Shipowner's Limitation Of Liability Act As An Independent Basis For Admiralty Jurisdiction, Amie L. Medley

Michigan Law Review

The Shipowner's Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 allowed the owner of a vessel to limit his liability in the case of an accident to the value of the vessel and its cargo if he could show he had no knowledge of or participation in the negligent act that resulted in the loss. In 1911, the Supreme Court decided Richardson v. Harmon, a case which was interpreted for several decades to hold that the Limitation Act formed an independent basis for admiralty jurisdiction. In a 1990 case, the Supreme Court stated in a footnote that it would not reach …

Noontime Dumping: Why States Have Broad Discretion To Regulate Onboard Treatments Of Ballast Water, Kyle H. Landis-Marinello

Michigan Law Review

Ballast water discharges from shipping vessels are responsible for spreading numerous forms of aquatic invasive species, a form of biological pollution that leads to billions of dollars in annual costs. In the wake of inaction from the federal government and inaction from the shipping industry, several Great Lakes states are currently considering legislation to address the problem. Michigan has already passed a law to prevent ballast water introductions of invasive species. As states begin to regulate ballast water discharges from oceangoing vessels, such laws will likely face challenges based on the constitutional principles of the Dormant Commerce Clause and the …

Balancing Commerce, History, And Geography: Defining The Navigable Waters Of The United States, John F. Baughman

Michigan Law Review

This Note develops a simple set of principles useful for defining navigable waters in a contemporary context. Part I considers why federal admiralty jurisdiction exists, and traces the evolution of the phrase navigable waters as a term of art. Part II analyzes the conflicting contemporary definitions of navigable waters. Part III resolves the conflict by proposing guidelines that address the major concerns of all competing definitions. The system advocated is consistent with the goals of admiralty, constitutionally sound, easy to apply, and focuses attention on the nexus test to resolve the issue of whether particular cases "belong" in admiralty.

Cannibalism And The Common Law: The Story Of The Tragic Last Voyage Of The Mignonette And The Strange Legal Proceedings To Which It Gave Rise, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Cannibalism and the Common Law: The Story of the Tragic Last Voyage of the Mignonette and the Strange Legal Proceedings to Which it Gave Rise by A.W. Brian Simpson

Compensation And Reward For Saving Life At Sea, Steven F. Friedell

Michigan Law Review

This Article explores the life salvage rules under the general maritime law and under the 1912 life salvage statute. Surprisingly, some life salvors had greater rights under the general maritime law than they have under cases construing the statute. This Article suggests that courts have given insufficient attention to the purposes of the Brussels Salvage Convention of 1910, which inspired the 1912 statute, and that American courts should .remain free to recognize all rights that life salvors possessed before the Brussels Convention.

This Article then considers whether American courts should further expand the rights of life salvors by awarding life …

The Homer Of The Pacific: Melville's Art And The Ambiguities Of Judging Evil, Lee C. Bollinger

Michigan Law Review

Writing in 1952 of Herman Melville's work and its significance, Albert Camus praised Melville as the "Homer of the Pacific." Such Olympian fame was deserved, Camus wrote, because "[i]f it is true that talent recreates life, while genius has the additional gift of crowning it with myths, Melville is first and foremost a creator of myths." This essay concerns one aspect of those myths, Melville's exploration of man's struggle with the injustice and evil that originates from both within and without himself, and asserts its relevance to an understanding of the judicial process.

Admiralty Procedure And Jurisdiction After The 1966 Unification, David W. Robertson

Michigan Law Review

From the nation's beginning, the federal district courts have been vested with jurisdiction in cases "of admiralty or maritime jurisdiction." Like its predecessor statute, section 1333 of the present Judicial Code asserts that the jurisdiction is "exclusive of the courts of the states," but the infamous "saving clause" goes on to negate that exclusivity in the bulk of maritime cases by giving the plaintiff the option of maintaining his action in any other court having jurisdiction over it. In "saving clause" cases--that is, cases that could have been brought in federal court under the admiralty jurisdiction, but which were maintained, …

Admiralty--Torts--Recovery Permitted For Mental Suffering Of Surviving Spouse In Death Action Under General Maritime Law--In Re Sincere Navigation Corp., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A recent federal district court decision, In re Sincere Navigation Corp. allowed recovery for the emotional distress of the spouse and the children of a seaman killed in a collision on the Mississippi River ·within the territorial waters of Louisiana. The action for ·wrongful death was brought under general maritime law through a new federal remedy first announced in Moragne v. States Marine Lines, lnc. Moragne did not specifically enumerate the elements of damage for which recovery would be allowed; instead it left the question open for consideration in later decisions. Whether any recovery was permitted under general maritime law …

Admiralty- Shipowner's Right To Indemnification For Loss Caused By Latently Defective Gear Supplied By Nonnegligent Stevedoring-Compnay, John W. Erickson

Michigan Law Review

Defendant stevedoring company contracted to perform stevedoring services for plaintiff shipowner. Pursuant to its agreement to supply gear for the job, the stevedoring company supplied a latently defective rope, the breaking of which caused injury to a longshoreman, an employee of the stevedoring company. The longshoreman obtained a judgment against the shipowner under the doctrine of unseaworthiness, and in a separate action the shipowner sought indemnification from the stevedoring company. The district court, finding the stevedoring company not negligent, denied recovery. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed, one judge dissenting. On certiorari to the United States Supreme …

Maritime Contiguous Zones, Lloyd C. Fell

Michigan Law Review

During the past two centuries, various states which had previously limited their claims of full sovereignty to narrow marginal seas have also asserted special types of jurisdiction over high seas zones outside what they claimed (or what others accepted) as territorial waters. This comment deals with such claims to contiguous zones of the high seas over which the littoral state asserts authority: which may affect the interests of other states.

Admiralty-Laches-Expiration Of Analogous State Statute Of Limitations As Ground For Dismissal, Herbert H. Brown

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a seaman on the S.S. Ioannis, was injured when the Ioannis and the S.S. Stony Point collided. By the time plaintiff filed his action, the three-year state statute of limitations for personal injuries caused by negligence had expired. The District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the complaint on the ground that the expiration of the state statute of limitations caused the plaintiff's action to be barred by !aches. On appeal, held, vacated and remanded. Expiration of the analogous state statute of limitations does not give rise to a presumption that the plaintiff's delay …

Federal Civil Procedure-Venue-Effect Of 1948 Judicial Code Definition Of Corporate Residence On Venue Under The Jones Act, Mary Mandana Long

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff seaman, having been injured while serving on a vessel owned and operated by the defendant corporations, brought a civil action in federal district court alleging claims for negligence under the Jones Act, for unseaworthiness, and for maintenance and cure. The venue provision of the Jones Act requires that actions under it be brought in the district in which the defendant employer resides or in which his principal office is located. Plaintiff filed his complaint in the Western District of Pennsylvania although defendants were incorporated and maintained their principal offices in Louisiana. Defendants' motions to dismiss on the ground of …

Freedom Of Navigation For International Rivers: What Does It Mean?, Ralph W. Johnson

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this paper will be to analyze the origin of the concept, trace its (their) development, point out the most commonly used meanings, and then demonstrate the substantial irrelevance of the concept, by any of these definitions, to present-day river navigation and trade problems.

Federal Jurisdiction-Federal Civil Procedure-Right To Jury Trial Of Seaman's Claim For Maintenance And Cure Where Joined With Claim Under Jones Act, Edwin A. Howe Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff seaman, having been injured while in the employ of defendant shipowner, filed an action in federal district court. Plaintiff invoked the court's federal-question jurisdiction alone, under section 1331 of the federal Judicial Code. He alleged claims for negligence under the Jones Act, for unseaworthiness, and for maintenance and cure, and demanded jury trial of all three counts. The trial court sustained the demand as to the first two counts, but ordered that the claim for maintenance and cure be tried to the judge alone, sitting as a court of admiralty. On appeal from the order denying jury trial …

Admiralty--Liability--Transitory Unseaworthiness, Richard Delamielleure

Michigan Law Review

While loading grain aboard a ship, the petitioners, longshoremen, were injured when they inhaled noxious fumes from a shot of grain released into the vessel's hold, the grain having been treated with a chemical insecticide by unknown parties at an inland point. Petitioners brought suit against the city, which owned the grain elevators, and the shipowner, alleging, among other things, that the vessel was unseaworthy. The district court found the ship to be seaworthy, and the circuit court of appeals affirmed the judgment for the defendant. On certiorari the Supreme Court vacated the judgment and remanded the case to the …

Longshoreman-Shipowner-Stevedore: The Circle Of Liability, Harney B. Stover, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

It is universally recognized that in the past two decades the United States Supreme Court has substantially revised the law under which seamen, longshoremen and harbor workers (or their survivors) may recover damages for personal injury and death. One of the more recent and most authoritative texts in the field of admiralty and maritime law devotes an entire chapter, 147 pages in length, to the subject of the rights of seamen and maritime workers (or their survivors) of recovery for injury and death. The introduction to that chapter likens the Court's rewriting of the law in this field to a …

Labor Law--Injunctions--Order Restraining Election Aboard "Flag-Of-Convenience" Vessel, Lee D. Powar

Michigan Law Review

Upon petition of the National Maritime Union, the National Labor Relations Board directed a representation election among all unlicensed foreign seamen employed by Empresa Hondurena de Vapores, S.A., aboard a Honduran-registered ship. Empresa, a Honduran corporation which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the United Fruit Company, sought injunctive relief in a federal district court. The petition alleged that the Board's order violated treaty obligations, the Constitution of the United States and principles of international law. The Regional Director of the NLRB moved to dismiss, asserting that the district court lacked jurisdiction to enjoin such an order and that the Board's …

Admiralty-Jurisdiction - Statute Extending Admiralty Jurisdiction To Include Amphibious Torts Resulting In Personal Injury, Francis X. Beytagh

Michigan Law Review

Libelant linehandler, injured undocking a vessel, brought a personal injury action against the shipowner. Leave to amend this complaint by naming the city of Los Angeles and a tugboat company as defendants was denied by the federal district court. Libelant then filed suit on the admiralty side of the same district court against the city and the tugboat company on the identical cause of action. In ruling on respondents' exceptions to this libel, held, exceptions overruled. Upon establishing the constitutional validity of the Admiralty Extension Act, jurisdiction pursuant to its provisions can properly be exercised in the instant ship-to-shore …

Conflict Of Laws-Law Applicable In Federal Courts-Federal Law Applied To Contractual Relations Of Admiralty Lawyer, Robert E. Thorne S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff attorney was retained by a Spanish seaman to prosecute personal injury claims under the Jones Act and the general maritime law. Defendant shipping company induced the seaman to fire his lawyer and to recover instead under his Spanish employment contract. Plaintiff sued the shipping company in tort for interference with contractual relations. In a federal diversity suit, held, for plaintiff. Federal common law should be applied to determine the validity of the contract and the claim of tortious interference with it. Greenberg v. Panama Transp. Co., 185 F. Supp. 320 (D. Mass. 1960).

International Control Of The Safety Of Nuclear-Powered Merchant Ships, William H. Berman, Lee M. Hydeman

Michigan Law Review

In recent years we have witnessed the transition of nuclear-powered ships from an imaginative dream to an engineering reality. This vast step from the drawing board to successful operation on the high-seas has taken place in a remarkably short span of time. Nevertheless, in the :flush of enthusiasm over the technological achievement, we must not lose sight of the fact that the promise of nuclear power for the propulsion of ships will not have been fulfilled until nuclear vessels are operating safely and economically over the maritime trade routes of the world. It would be unrealistic to assume that further …

Admiralty - Wrongful Death Statutes - Use Of State Law, Louis Frey

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner's decedent, a carpenter, was employed by a contractor hired to repair the Bonneville Dam, which is owned and operated by the United States. During the course of his employment, decedent was drowned when the boat he was in capsized in the water below the dam. Petitioner sued the United States in federal district court under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging that the accident was caused by the negligence of employees of the United States who were operating the dam. The claim was based on the Oregon Wrongful Death Statute and on the Oregon Employer's Liability Law, which, in …

Admiralty - Collision - Last Clear Chance, Erik Stapper

Michigan Law Review

The City of Calcutta anchored in the navigation channel as an emergency precaution on a foggy night. The vessel was hit by a scow in tow of the tug Brooklyn, whose navigator had observed the anchored ship for ten minutes. The scow sank and its owner sought to hold the City of Calcutta liable for failure to get underway after the fog had lifted. Held, libel dismissed. Even if the Calcutta was remiss in not moving, no liability could attach because the Brooklyn had the last clear chance of avoiding the accident. Arundel Corp. v. The City of …

Admiralty - Unseaworthiness - Recovery For Injuries Resulting From Condition Arising After Commencement Of The Voyage, John L. Peschel

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a member of the crew of a fishing vessel, sustained injuries while disembarking when he slipped on a slimy substance on the ship railing. In an action brought against the shipowner, the seaman sought recovery on three alternative grounds: first, under the Jones Act based upon negligence; second, under general maritime law based upon the obligation of the shipowner to furnish a seaworthy vessel; third, under general maritime law for maintenance and cure. Judgment was entered pursuant to a verdict limiting the seaman to recovery for maintenance and cure. On the seaman's appeal from the adverse verdict on the …

Admiralty - Limitation Of Liability - Right Of Vendor Of Chattel To Limit Liability, Bruce L. Bower S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The United States sold a steam tanker to S corporation and S delivered the vessel to T corporation for repairs. While it was moored at T's pier there was an explosion on board which caused extensive damage to the vessel and killed or injured fifty-two persons. T filed a libel against the United States alleging that at the time of the sale to S the United States also had sold, by a separate contract, a quantity of oil located in the vessel. The libelant further alleged that the United States, having represented the oil to be of one type …

Admiralty- "Twilight Zone" In Workmen's Compensation - Pursuit Of State Common Law Action Against Employer, James S. Leigh

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was injured on his employer's barge moored in navigable waters while assisting in a loading operation. The employer was insured solely under the Federal Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act. Instead of pursuing the remedy available under the federal act, petitioner brought the common law action authorized by state workmen's compensation legislation in the state courts. The Oregon Supreme Court affirmed judgment for the employer on the ground that the injury was covered exclusively by the federal act. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, reversed per curiam, two justices dissenting. The injury was incurred within the …

Admiralty - Warranty Of Seaworthiness - Longshoreman's Choice Of Remedies, Richard E. Young

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, employee of a stevedoring company hired to unload defendant's ship, was injured while operating a defective chisel truck in the ship's hold. The truck belonged to and was operated, maintained and brought aboard by the stevedoring company, the ship having no similar equipment. Furthermore, the stevedoring company was assumed to be aware of the defect prior to the accident. Plaintiff brought suit for damages against the shipowner alleging unseaworthiness, and the shipowner impleaded the stevedoring company as a third-party defendant. On motion by the defendants for summary judgment, held, motion denied. The shipowner is liable on an absolute …

Admiralty - Death On The High Seas Act - Effect On Workmen's Compensation Recoveries, Thomas E. Kauper S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Decedent, aboard an airliner in his capacity as flight service supervisor, was killed when the plane crashed into the Pacific. Respondent airlines, decedent's employer, filed an application with the California Industrial Accident Commission to determine its liability under the California Workmen's Compensation Act. The commission awarded decedent's widow a death benefit despite the widow's objection to the commission's jurisdiction. Prior to the award the widow as administratrix of decedent's estate initiated this action under the Death on the High Seas Act (DHSA) in admiralty. On motion for summary judgment in respondent's favor, held, motion granted. DHSA is applicable to …

Marine Insurance And The Substantive Admiralty Law A Comment On The Wilburn Boat Company Case, Brunson Macchesney

Michigan Law Review

At the invitation of the editors, Professor MacChesney undertook to write this article especially for the memorial issue as a tribute to Professor Durfee, his former teacher.

Admiralty - Jones Act - Applicability To Dredge Employees As Seaman, Ross Kipka

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner, a laborer, was employed by respondent on a canal digging project. His duties were those of a handyman on respondent's dredge, which was temporarily attached to shore, and his work consisted of carrying supplies from shore to the dredge, cleaning the dredge, and doing errands ashore. The employee was not a member of a maritime union, but was a member of a laborers' union. He lived at home, worked on an eight hour shift, and brought his meals to his place of employment. He was not subject to the supervision of the officer of the dredge but received his …