American Dredging Co. v. Lambert

• Decision Date: 19 April 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94-4583,94-4583
• Citation: American Dredging Co. v. Lambert, 81 F.3d 127 (11th Cir. 1996)
• Parties: AMERICAN DREDGING COMPANY, as owner of the tug Marco Island, her engines, tackle, appurtenances, in a cause of exoneration from or limitation of liability in the matter of:, Plaintiff-Counter-Defendant-Appellant, v. Jose LAMBERT, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Alejandro Lambert, Kim Pietruszka, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Donald R. Pietruszka and Individually, Mario Perez, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Vivian Perez, Juan Renteria, Defendants-Counter-Claimants-Appellees, Zacharia S. Gispan, Defendant-Counter-Claimant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 127

81 F.3d 127

1996 A.M.C. 2929

AMERICAN DREDGING COMPANY, as owner of the tug Marco Island her engines, tackle, appurtenances, in a cause of exoneration from or limitation of liability in the matter of:, Plaintiff-Counter-Defendant-Appellant, v. Jose LAMBERT, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Alejandro Lambert, Kim Pietruszka, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Donald R. Pietruszka and Individually, Mario Perez, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Vivian Perez, Juan Renteria Defendants-Counter-Claimants-Appellees Zacharia S. Gispan, Defendant-Counter-Claimant.

No. 94-4583.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

April 19, 1996.

Ted L. Shinkle, Miami, FL, Mark Hicks, Ralph O. Anderson, Miami, FL, for Appellant.

Laurence F. Vallee, Miami, FL, Elizabeth K. Russo, Coconut Grove, FL, for Kim Pietruszka.

Mark D. Gilwit, Miami, FL, for Juan Renteria.

Thomas E. Backmeyer, Miami, FL, for Jose Lambert and others.

Michael J. Murphy, Coral Gables, FL, Patrice A. Talisman, Coconut Grove, FL, for Mario Perez.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before KRAVITCH, ANDERSON and BARKETT, Circuit Judges.

BARKETT, Circuit Judge:

American Dredging Company appeals from an adverse summary judgment denying its petition for exoneration from or limitation of liability for a nighttime collision involving one of its floating dredge pipelines and a motorboat carrying four passengers, three of whom died as a result of the collision. American Dredging also appeals from the district court's denial of its motion for partial summary judgment to preclude the decedents' representatives from recovering non-pecuniary damages in their wrongful death actions.

We affirm the grant of final summary judgment as to liability, and in light of the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. v. Calhoun, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 619, 133 L.Ed.2d 578 (1996), we affirm the district court's ruling that American Dredging potentially is liable to the representatives for non-pecuniary damages.

I. Background

The collision giving rise to this action occurred in the early morning of November 23, 1991, in territorial waters adjacent to the Port of Miami. At approximately 2:30 a.m., Juan Renteria, Donald Pietruszka, Vivian Perez, and Alejandro Lambert ¹ boarded a motorboat, which Lambert navigated toward Fisherman's Channel, where American Dredging was conducting a dredging operation. The dredge the "American," located in the channel near the Port of Miami, had approximately 1000 feet of dredge pipeline, supported by floating pontoons, trailing behind it. The dredge pipeline had flashing yellow lights on it, the number and location of which failed to meet statutory requirements.

About thirty minutes before the collision, a large barge and tug sought access to a dock at the Port of Miami, which the dredge "American" and the dredge pipeline were blocking. To permit access, American Dredging's tug the "Marco Island" divided the dredge pipeline and moved one part away. The ends of the broken pipeline did not have red lights on them, as required by statute.

With the dredge pipeline thus improperly illuminated, open, and a segment of it extending from the dredge "American" to the tug "Marco Island," the motorboat entered the channel. Lambert was navigating the boat in an easterly direction at approximately 30 m.p.h. when it struck the dredge pipeline. The motorboat broke apart, throwing its four passengers into the water. The impact seriously injured Renteria, and killed Pietruszka, Lambert, and Perez.

American Dredging filed a petition in admiralty in the district court under 46 U.S.C.App. § 183, for exoneration from liability, contending that the collision was not a result of any negligence on its part; and in the alternative, for limitation of liability, contending that the collision occurred as a result of negligent acts of which it had no knowledge. ² Renteria and the personal representatives of the estates of Pietruszka, Lambert, and Perez filed answers contesting American Dredging's right to exoneration from or limitation of liability, and counterclaimed seeking pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages resulting from American Dredging's negligent operation of its vessels and equipment.

The district court granted the motion for summary judgment, which Renteria and the personal representatives filed, finding that American Dredging's negligence precluded both exoneration as well as limitation of liability. The court also denied American Dredging's motion for partial summary judgment seeking to prevent the personal representatives from recovering non-pecuniary damages.

II. Discussion

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, applying the same legal standards which bound the district court. Haves v. City of Miami, 52 F.3d 918, 921 (11th Cir.1995). In admiralty, as in all civil cases, we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Flores v. Carnival Cruise Lines, 47 F.3d 1120, 1122 (11th Cir.1995).

A. Exoneration and Limitation of Liability

A shipowner is entitled to exoneration from all liability for a maritime collision only when it demonstrates that it is free from any contributory fault. Tittle v. Aldacosta, 544 F.2d 752, 755 (5th Cir.1977). The determination of whether a shipowner is entitled to limit liability, however, involves a two-step analysis which this Court explained in Hercules Carriers, Inc. v. Claimant State of Florida, 768 F.2d 1558 (11th Cir.1985):

First, the court must determine what acts of negligence or conditions of unseaworthiness caused the accident. Second, the court must determine whether the shipowner had knowledge or privity of those same acts of negligence or conditions of unseaworthiness.

Id. at 1563-64 (citation & quotation omitted).

In this case, the district court determined first that the uncontroverted facts established that American Dredging violated statutory regulations designed to prevent the type of accident which occurred here. Among the cumulative evidence indicating noncompliance with 33 C.F.R. § 88.15, the district court noted that American Dredging had not placed red lights on the ends of the newly divided dredge pipeline to indicate where vessels could pass, and that it placed flashing yellow lights only every 100 feet along the pipeline, instead of at 10-meter intervals as required under the statute to warn vessels of the presence of a pipeline across a navigable channel.

The court then found that American Dredging had failed to produce evidence to show that its negligence could not have been one of the causes of the accident. ³ When a ship is involved in a collision and that ship is in violation of a statutory rule designed to prevent collisions, the burden shifts to the shipowner to prove that the violation was...