159 results for 'cat:"Maritime"'.
J. Vos finds a lower court properly dismissed an offshore construction management company's motion for indemnification against an insurance company. The construction management company argued that the insurer was obligated to provide indemnification after it crashed into a platform, which resulted in damage to its vessel. However, the insurance company sufficiently showed that the offshore contractor was not the "principal insured" on the policy. Affirmed.
Court: Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, Judge: Vos, Filed On: May 9, 2024, Case #: CA-2023-1683, Categories: Insurance, maritime, Indemnification
J. Lloyd- Jones finds a lower court improperly dismissed the Republic of South Africa's motion for claim form of property of a sunken ship that carried a cargo of silver. A specialist salvage operator argued that it was entitled to security of claim after it transported the vessel for payment from South Africa to the U.K. However, the Republic of Africa sufficiently showed in court that it is entitled to the cargo being that it was not intended for use of commercial purposes. Reversed.
Court: Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Judge: Lloyd- Jones, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 2024UKSC16, Categories: maritime, Jurisdiction
J. Ashe grants a request by the owner of an offshore supply boat to dismiss a purported expert for the vessel’s captain in his maritime personal injury case. While nobody challenges his qualifications as a mechanical engineer, both his report and deposition demonstrate his lack of expertise in naval architecture, marine engineering and vessel operations. He cannot offer expert opinions regarding the cause or effect of vessel “slamming” during offshore cargo operations that allegedly injured the captain.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Ashe, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1712, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: maritime, Negligence, Experts
J. Ashe grants summary judgment to a shoreside employer and against its loader-operator on spud barges, rejecting the employee’s claims he is entitled to a seaman’s status and benefits after he was knocked into a canal while unloading limestone from a barge. The employee is not a seaman because he did not engage in sea-based or seagoing activity and did not sail with his employer’s vessels. The undisputed evidence shows that the employee nearly always worked on vessels that were only a gangplank away from shore.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Ashe, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv2570, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Employment, Evidence, maritime
[Consolidated.] J. Engelhardt finds the district court improperly found the Indian citizen's claims are governed by the Jones Act and general maritime law. The Indian citizen says he contracted malaria in Africa while working on a Liberian ship managed by the Singaporean ship management company. The ship worker suffered gangrene, having several toes amputated, and contends the management company failed to provision the ship while in a U.S. port despite knowing it lacked antimalarial medication. He has not asserted or shown the relevant portions of the law of Singapore or India conflict with the law of Liberia; therefore, the law of the ship's flag prevails. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Engelhardt , Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: 22-30758, Categories: Health Care, maritime, Choice Of Law
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J. Gillmor denies summary judgment to the employer of a worker whose was injured when her arm was sucked into an industrial vacuum while working on board a U.S. Navy vessel. There are genuine issues of material fact as to if the worker was considered a “seaman” under the definition of the Jones Act when the injury occurred as there are questions as to if the worker’s efforts to protect the ship from corrosion should be contributed to the operation of the vessel as well as questions about the extent of the injuries and the relationship of all the parties to each other. The worker’s declarations are not a “sham” as the employer does not show how different instances of her testimony contradict each other.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Gillmor, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv275, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Employment, maritime, Tort
J. Fallon finds an international commodity trading company based in the U.K. is entitled to $629,000 in unpaid invoices for fuel delivered to a cargo vessel in Spain. The fuel provider has not been paid by either of two charterers or the vessel. The vessel was arrested in the Port of New Orleans and released on a $775,000 bond. The commodity trader is provided to a maritime lien against the vessel’s owner for the unpaid fuel, plus interest and fees for a total amount of $722,000.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Fallon, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23cv595, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: maritime, Damages, Banking / Lending
J. Higginson finds the district court properly found the owner of the unpowered drillship to be liable for the ship's moorage breakaway during Hurrican Harvey. Maritime negligence law, rather than a "towage law," was appropriately applied in the court's holding the force majeure contract defense was not available to the ship owner in relation to the tugboat owner hired to tend to the ship during the storm. The tugboat owner also had expressly refused to agree to the terms of the agreement for provision of services. Because the tugboat owner had supplied another vessel to monitor the ship after the breakaway, and that tug failed to stop the vessel’s allision with a University of Texas pier, the court correctly found both owners were equally liable for damages suffered by the school. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginson , Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 23-40209, Categories: maritime, Damages, Negligence
J. Currault grants a request by the owner of a self-propelled spud barge, compelling a marine repair yard to produce personnel files on all seven of its employees who worked on its vessel at the time it was damaged by a fire. Training records of the employees performing work on the vessel are relevant to the claims and defenses of this case and must be produced. The repair yard's objections on the basis of overbreadth and undue burden are overruled as improper.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Currault, Filed On: April 19, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv243, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: maritime, Discovery
J. Summerhays awards $248,000 to a deckhand on a shrimp boat against the vessel’s owner for injuries sustained in an allision. The employer deliberately failed to investigate the seaman’s injury claim that the captain of the boat had been drinking and the vessel was traveling at approximately 40 mph when it struck an oil platform. The employer also failed to respond to the injured seaman’s suit and “callously” failed to provide the injured deckhand with medical benefits and living expenses during his recovery.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Summerhays, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 6:19cv1442, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Employment, maritime, Damages
J. Duncan finds the district court properly granted summary judgment in favor of the Coast Guard. A competitor of the dredging barge owner challenged a Coast Guard ruling the barge was made in the U.S., allowing for its use in U.S. waters. Though the vessel used foreign-made appliances, the Coast Guard correctly ruled the barge is considered to be U.S.-built. The court properly deferred to the Coast Guard’s reasonable interpretation of its own regulations, and the ruling is not arbitrary or capricious. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Duncan , Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 23-20118, Categories: Government, maritime
J. Long compels arbitration of certain claims in a maritime cargo damage dispute related to shipment of 14,000 bags of cement from Port Said, Egypt, to a cement plant in Houston, Texas. The litigants’ agreement is valid and enforceable but does not stay the entire litigation.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Long, Filed On: April 9, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv788, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Arbitration, maritime, Contract
J. Sutton finds the district court properly granted summary judgment to the insurer in this dispute over denied coverage for losses an aluminum company suffered due to aluminum shortages caused by transportation issues and delays. The insurer alleges the policy did not cover the transportation expenses and that the delay’s did not result from arrest, detainment or restraint. The aluminum company did in fact suffer the transportation issues, but the parties only focused on the threshold question of whether the aluminum firm experienced that risk. Affirmed.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Sutton, Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 23-5543, Categories: Insurance, maritime
J. Douglas denies the environmental advocacy group's petition for review of the Maritime Administration Agency's approval of the construction of a deepwater oil port. The agency adequately considered extensive reports, studies and public commentary involving the environmental consequences of the facility before approving port.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Douglas , Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 23-60027, Categories: Energy, Environment, maritime
J. Jackson denies an offshore oilfield worker’s request for remand of his slip-n-fall some three miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. The worker unsuccessfully argues removal of his suit from state court was improperly based on federal jurisdiction over the Outer Continental Shelf lands in the Gulf of Mexico. Although he argues he was off-duty when he fell, the worker would not have been injured “but-for” his employment on the platform, where the vessel was moored and engaged in oil and gas activities in federal waters.
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: Jackson, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 3:20cv00250, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: maritime, Tort, Jurisdiction
J. Fallon finds the owner of two nuclear power plants has proven it is entitled to damages in the amount of $1.5 million for repairs to its catwalks and supporting structures after a runaway barge slammed into the facilities’ protective clusters during Hurricane Ida. The owner has carried its burden on the elements of duty, breach and damages. The barge owner has failed to rebut the presumption of causation and, therefore, is liable to for the storm-related damages.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Fallon, Filed On: March 25, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv504, NOS: Other Personal Property Damage - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Evidence, maritime, Damages
J. Kindred denies a longshoreman's negligence claim stemming from a shoulder injury he sustained when he slipped and fell while working aboard a vessel. "It is not reasonable for a professional longshoreman to expect an ice-free deck inside of a freezer hold when the hatch cover is open to the elements." The longshoreman's supervisor warned him that the decks would be slippery and instructed him to use extra care. "The cargo deck in question was not covered in ice and there was no ice or slick condition beyond the usual conditions."
Court: USDC Alaska, Judge: Kindred, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 3:20cv98, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: maritime, Tort
J. Brodie preserves a maritime contract and fraud lawsuit that alleges an international moving company hired a maritime shipping company to transport cargo to Israel, but failed to disclose that the recipient of the cargo had gone out of business, which ultimately resulted in $161,000 loss for the shipping company. There remain questions as to the moving company’s intent and whether it failed to comply with the contract when it refused to pay the costs incurred as a result.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Brodie, Filed On: March 18, 2024, Case #: 2:20cv2130, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: maritime, Contract
J. Males finds a lower court properly dismissed a Japanese owned container ship company's contract claims against a maritime salvage service. The container ship company argued that the salvage service did not perform one time salvage services, but instead performed services via a pre- existent contract. However, the salvage service sufficiently showed in court that that the container ship company is entitled to pay remuneration for successfully refloating the vessel. Affirmed.
Court: Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, Judge: Males, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: CA-2023-798, Categories: maritime, Damages, Contract
J. Perez finds that the U.S. Maritime Administration properly held that a foreign company's expansion of its European river cruises to the U.S. market on the Mississippi did not violate federal maritime law. Although foreign firms are generally barred from transporting passengers and goods between U.S. ports, the company arranged for U.S. construction and operation of the cruise ship, providing only the entertainment, and approval of the arrangement as a permissible time charter was "reasonable." Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Perez, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 22-1029, Categories: maritime, Unfair Competition
J. Fallon grants summary judgment to a New Orleans area river transportation company on its argument any liability it may incur for damage to steel coils shipped from Korea is limited to no more than $500 per coil, pursuant to provisions of a barge transportation agreement with an intermediary hired to transport the cargo from New Orleans to Illinois and Ohio. Because both barge transportation companies expressly agreed to the terms, the New Orleans-based business may enforce the limitation provision.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Fallon, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv27, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Evidence, maritime, Contract
J. Stewart finds the trial court properly granted summary judgment to the subsea oil drilling engineering and exploration firm. The employee says he sustained injuries to his shoulder and neck while servicing a remotely operated vehicle onboard a drillship during a Chevron contract. He brings claims under theories of negligence and unseaworthiness. The trial court correctly held the employee is not a seaman as defined by his Jones Act claim, and he did not establish a genuine dispute of material fact as to negligence and unseaworthiness. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Stewart , Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 23-20095, Categories: maritime, Tort, Negligence
J. Burroughs grants an insurance company’s motion for a declaratory judgment exempting it from any obligation to defend a boat owner who approached another boat that struck a navigational aid and caused its passengers to enter the water, including one passenger who drowned, and who left the scene without providing assistance. The boat owner who left the scene failed to sit for an examination under oath.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Burroughs, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv11401, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, maritime, Wrongful Death
J. Saylor denies both an equipment company’s motion to dismiss in part a complaint brought against it by an investment firm, and denies the investment firm’s motion for partial summary judgment. The investment firm is not limited to an in rem proceeding if it wishes to obtain title to the vessels. Remaining interest that the creditors have in the vessels once debts have been satisfied hasn’t been considered yet, preventing summary judgment.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Saylor, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv11658, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: Debt Collection, maritime