Barton v. Borit

• Decision Date: 30 April 1963
• Docket Number: No. 14083.,14083.
• Citation: 316 F.2d 550
• Parties: Raymond Allan BARTON, Libelant-Appellee, v. Louis BORIT, Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

316 F.2d 550 (1963)

Raymond Allan BARTON, Libelant-Appellee, v. Louis BORIT, Respondent-Appellant.

No. 14083.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued January 29, 1963.

Decided April 30, 1963.

George H. T. Dudley, St. Thomas, V. I., for appellant.

Warren H. Young, St. Croix, V. I., (Young & Isherwood, Christiansted, St. Croix, U. S. V. I., on the brief), for appellee.

Before MARIS, WOODBURY^* and HASTIE, Circuit Judges.

Argued at Christiansted January 29, 1963.

WOODBURY, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment in a suit in admiralty wherein the District Court of the Virgin Islands awarded the libellant-appellee $25,185 ($23,000 damages, $2,185 interest) and costs, for the loss of the 40-foot catamaran "Miami Mae I," with its accessories, while it was in the custody of and being operated by the respondent-libellee under an oral bailment.

There is no serious dispute over the following facts.

The libellant-appellee, Raymond Barton, arrived at St. Croix, V. I., in the summer of 1960 on board the "Miami Mae I," which had been built under his personal supervision in Portugal the year before at the cost of $12,500 for the hull, rigging and sails and which he, with one paid hand, had sailed across the Atlantic. With the intention of engaging in the Buck Island excursion trip business, Barton began conversion of the craft from closed cabin to open cockpit in order to increase its passenger carrying capacity from six to eighteen. While these alterations were being made Barton moved the boat from Christiansted Harbor to Emerald Bay on the northeast shore of St. Croix, hard by the then residence of his new-found friend, the respondent Borit, and asked Borit to "look after" the boat while he, Barton, made a trip to continental United States. In return for this favor Barton told Borit, who was an experienced sailor, that he might use the boat, but the evidence is contradictory as to the scope of the authorization. Borit testified that the scope of his authority to use was unlimited. Barton gave various versions, the general tenor being that Borit might use the boat to sail on weekends in the waters around St. Croix as far as the outer reef off Buck Island.

Borit used the "Miami Mae I" four or five times for single handed afternoon sails close to St. Croix and Buck Island and then decided to sail the boat about fifty miles across open sea to Roadtown on the Island of Tortola, one of the British Virgin Islands, to inspect two of his own boats in dry dock at a boat yard there. He said he hoped to pick up one of his own boats and sail it back to St. Croix leaving the catamaran to have its bottom cleaned and painted as a surprise gift to Barton. In pursuance of this plan Borit left St. Croix on October 18, 1960, about 2 P.M. He took no crew but was accompanied by a woman passenger who was not a sailor.

Clearly Borit could not have made Tortola by nightfall. He said it was not his intention to do so but to anchor for the night off Peter Island, lying east and a little north of the easterly end of the Island of St. John. For various reasons Borit fell behind his schedule, and about 9 P.M. he decided not to risk further sailing in the dark but to anchor for the night in the lee of a small uninhabited islet just to the east of the easterly end of St. John called Flanagan Island. Borit first tried to anchor on the west side of Flanagan Island but was prevented from doing so by a rolling sea and then he tried to anchor off the southwest corner of the island where he claimed to have a skin diver's knowledge of the waters. This attempt also proved unsuccessful and the "Miami Mae I" stuck on a rock. Borit tried to get the boat off but failed and the next morning he and his passenger swam ashore. Two days later they were rescued by the Coast Guard. The "Miami Mae I" was a total loss.

There is evidence that before the ill-fated voyage the "Miami Mae I" had been damaged to some extent by being blown ashore by high winds on the fringe of a hurricane and that she was in a somewhat deteriorated condition from neglect. And it is undisputed that in the process of reconstruction from a cabin to a cockpit vessel her running lights had been removed. She had no dingy or life jackets on board and there is evidence that her 80' anchor rope was insufficient and that her outboard motor was inoperable. While the boat might have been seaworthy for daytime sailing around St. Croix as far as Buck Island, there can be no doubt that she could be found inadequate in structure and equipment for an open sea voyage to Tortola. Nor can there be doubt that the evidence supports a conclusion that Borit was negligent in starting the voyage he had in mind so late in the day without a crew on a boat as ill-fitted for the voyage and that he was negligent in attempting to anchor where he did instead of seeking a more sheltered anchorage nearby in Hurricane Hole. In short, the evidence clearly supports the district court's conclusion No. 1: "That the unauthorized use and the negligent handling of the `Miami Mae I' by the respondent Borit on October 18, 1960, was the direct and proximate cause of its destruction." This finding is accordingly affirmed.

The serious question on this appeal is the adequacy of the district court's findings on the issue of damages.

The only subsidiary findings underlying the district court's award of damages in the amount of $23,000 are the following: 1) that the market for the sale of catamarans is "specialized," 2) that Barton paid $12,500 for the hull and sails in Portugal in 1959, 3) that he spent seven months supervising its construction, 4) that the cost of shipping the boat to the Virgin Islands would have been over $3,000, 5) that the estimated life of the boat is between 15 and 20 years,...