No Jury Trial for Severed Admiralty Claim

Quasi-Contract Claim is Maritime Case

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 5, 2012
Tags: Admiralty, Judge Norman K. Moon, U.S. District Court - Western District

A Lynchburg U.S. District Court declines to dismiss a South African freight-forwarding company’s suit against defendant, a Lynchburg company that imports and sells linens, for failure to pay for an international shipment of hotel bed linens; the dispute falls within the court’s quasi-contract admiralty jurisdiction. For a district court to have proper subject matter jurisdiction [...]

Court Conveys Titanic Salvage Artifacts

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 15, 2012
Tags: Admiralty, Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Norfolk U.S. District Court conveys title to the artifacts salvaged from the R.M.S. Titanic to R.M.S. Titanic Inc., but such title is fully subject to the covenants and conditions that the U.S., through the U.S. Attorney, negotiated and finalized with RMST and the court. On Aug. 12, 2010, this court granted R.M.S. Titanic Inc. [...]

Tug Owner Wins Limited Liability

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 8, 2012
Tags: Admiralty, Judge Raymond A. Jackson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Norfolk U.S. District Court denies a tug boat owner’s claim for exoneration from liability, but grants the owner’s claim for limitation of liability under the Limitation of Liability Act, 46 U.S.C. § 30501 et seq., and awards the U.S. $2.52 million in damages and prejudgment interest; the court finds the tug owner is not [...]

Injured Seaman Must Arbitrate Claims

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 28, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Admiralty, Judge Robert B. King

A Filipino seaman who suffered devastating injuries while working aboard the Asian Spirit vessel in the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore must arbitrate his claims against the vessel owner and additional defendants; the 4th Circuit affirms the arbitration decision but vacates the dismissal of the case and remands for reinstatement and consideration of the injunction request [...]

No Nonpecuniary Damages for Sailor’s Widow

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 7, 2012
Tags: Admiralty, Justice Donald W. Lemons, Supreme Court of Virginia

In this suit against John Crane Inc. by the widow of a Navy sailor who died of mesothelioma after exposure to asbestos while working as a ship fitter, the widow may not collect nonpecuniary damages of $2 million for the sailor’s pain and suffering and $1.15 million for her loss of his society; but the [...]

Court Cautions Against ‘Drive-By’ Jurisdiction Rulings

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 29, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Admiralty, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Invoking the Supreme Court’s warning against “drive-by jurisdictional rulings,” the 4th Circuit sorts out the differences between motions under 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) and reverses the district court’s dismissal of a Jones Act claim, saying plaintiff’s allegation of injury to his hand from a dockside conveyor belt stated a Jones Act claim. Plaintiff’s complaint purports to [...]

Jury for General Maritime Negligence

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 13, 2012
Tags: Admiralty, Judge Douglas E. Miller, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The Norfolk U.S. District Court held a boating accident victim could demand a jury trial in his amended complaint against two boat operators; the “saving-to suitors” clause in 28 USC § 1333(1) preserves the common law remedy in general maritime negligence claims asserted against in personam defendants. Victim sustained severe and permanent injuries in a [...]

Titanic items to be sold 100 years after sinking

By The Associated Press
Published: January 9, 2012
Tags: Admiralty, Federal Courts, Judge Rebecca Beach Smith

(AP) Items as small as a hairpin and as big as a chunk of the Titanic’s hull are among 5,000 artifacts from the world’s most famous shipwreck that are to be auctioned in April, close to the 100th anniversary of the disaster. Nearly a century after the April 15, 1912, sinking of the ocean liner [...]

Damage Award for Yacht Owner Upheld

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 27, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Admiralty, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

When the captain of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel fell asleep at the wheel and struck plaintiff’s 70-foot yacht, the Marquessa, docked at the pier at Ocean Marine marina in Portsmouth, the yacht was a constructive total loss based on two of three opinions in this battle of the experts, and the 4th [...]