In re Madsen's Petition

• Decision Date: 23 September 1960
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 7844.
• Citation: 187 F. Supp. 411
• Parties: Petition of David S. MADSEN, Owner of a Correct Craft utility inboard motorboat, her engines, etc., for exoneration from or limitation of liability, civil and maritime.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

187 F. Supp. 411

Petition of David S. MADSEN, Owner of a Correct Craft utility inboard motorboat, her engines, etc., for exoneration from or limitation of liability, civil and maritime.

Civ. No. 7844.

United States District Court N. D. New York.

September 23, 1960.

Maynard, O'Connor & Smith, Schenectady, N. Y., J. Vincent Smith, Schenectady, N. Y., of counsel, for petitioner.

Charles S. Tracy, Amsterdam, N. Y., Carter & Conboy, Cohoes, N. Y., by James S. Carter, Cohoes, N. Y., of counsel, for Arvid E. Anderson, Individually and as Guardian ad Litem of Arvid E. Anderson, Jr.

JAMES T. FOLEY, District Judge.

This proceeding for limitation of liability (46 U.S.C.A. § 183 et seq.) arises from a boating accident that occurred August 1, 1959, on Lake Pleasant, Hamilton County, New York. Arvid E. Anderson, Jr., was riding on water skis behind a motorboat owned and operated by Arvid E. Anderson, I assume his father, when he was struck by a pleasure speed boat operated by Andrew A. Madsen and owned by his father, David S. Madsen. The petitioner, David S. Madsen, in these proceedings seeks to be exonerated from or to limit his liability as vessel owner pursuant to the pertinent federal statutes. On August 6, 1959, two actions were commenced in Supreme Court, Hamilton County, New York, a representative one for the injured infant, Arvid E. Anderson, Jr., claiming severe injuries, and the usual derivative one by the father against David Madsen. On August 26, 1959, answers were filed by David Madsen in both State actions. Thereafter, the petition under the federal Limitation of Liability Statutes was filed in this United States District Court. According to an affidavit filed herein by the proctors for the Andersons, an order based on the petition for limitation was signed by Chief Judge Brennan requiring proof of claim and staying prosecution of the state actions. See Pershing Auto Rentals, Inc. v. Gaffney, 5 Cir., 279 F.2d 546, 552. It is clear that only two claims could possibly exist as a result of the accident. The claimants have filed an answer to the petition specifically denying jurisdiction in this Court of this limitation proceeding because of the nature and locale of Lake Pleasant. It is an important problem for this District Court, which has within its geographical area of twenty-nine counties myriad interior lakes of New York State. Pleasure boating, now within the means of the average person, is on the increase in each of these lakes, and inevitably, in my judgment, as highway accidents multiplied from the ownership and use of more automobiles, so will the small pleasure boat accidents.

I have had several of these proceedings instituted with me, and in In re Reading's Petition (The Crow's Nest IIA), D.C., 169 F.Supp. 165, affirmed 2 Cir., 271 F.2d 959, I expressed my thoughts as to my difficulty to relate the principle of limitation to encourage investment in shipping and shipbuilding with the happening of these small boat accidents where the owner is a private individual usually covered by insurance. I am sure the ever-growing number of purchasers of these small pleasure craft do not check the limitation statutes before they purchase and never will. The financial protection and regulation necessary to alleviate the burden of society where the widow and orphan, maimed and crippled, are with us as a result of unfortunate highway accidents seem to me just as important in these boating accidents. Much of the complexity in this respect is for the legislative wisdom to solve, with realization that the general legislation on limitation may have harsh and oppressive impact in certain circumstances that may fairly and equitably be removed. Petition of Colonial Trust Co., D.C., 124 F.Supp. 73. For example, the absent owner of the automobile may be responsible for the negligence of the authorized operator in New York. See In re Petition of Hocking, D.C., 158 F.Supp. 620.

In several instances where limitation proceedings were before me there was confusion in the minds of the Court and the lawyers as to the procedures and rights where jurisdiction was not questioned but the right to limitation under the particular facts was an issue and challenged by the claimants. There is recent helpful and persuasive reasoning in Pershing Auto Rentals, Inc. v. Gaffney, supra, 279 F.2d at page 552:

"We suspect that back of this strenuous effort to get the right to try these actions first in the state court is the apprehension that unless it is done in this fashion the plaintiff-claimants will be irrevocably denied their right to jury trials even though they succeed in their confident expectation of defeating limitation on the merits. But this is a misapprehension erroneously deduced from the acknowledged power of the admiralty court to adjudicate the whole case and grant full relief even though limitation is denied. This is a protection to those compelled under the monition and restraining orders to litigate in an unchosen forum. The claimants are the ones to determine whether such full relief from the admiralty is desired or needed. If they do not desire it, the admiralty court in its decree denying the right to limitation can make certain that they are free to pursue the petitioner in any other forum having requisite jurisdiction. This is precisely the holding of the Second Circuit in In re Wood's Petition, supra, 230 F.2d 197, at page 199."

See also Val Marine Corp. v. Costas, 2 Cir., 256 F.2d 911, 915, note 5. This review has no bearing on the narrow issue presented by the motion of the claimants here to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. It is stated solely with the hope it may have some value as a chart or possible guide in future limitation proceedings in this District.

It is the resolute—and to me somewhat ingenious—contention of the proctors for the petitioner that Section 183 of 46 U.S. C.A. gives the right to "the owner of any vessel" to seek the benefits of limitation regardless of the public navigability of the waters in the federal sense. He stoutly maintains that the tie-in of the owners of all vessels used on lakes by Section 188, with the provisions of Section 183, separates the limitation of liability statutes from the general and maritime jurisdiction with its settled concept of public navigation in the federal sense. It is interesting to note that to follow this reasoning to logical conclusion would put the limitation statutes within reach of every boat owner...