In re Silver Bridge Disaster Litigation

Decision Date12 July 1974
Docket NumberM. D. L. No. 39.
Citation381 F. Supp. 931
PartiesIn re SILVER BRIDGE DISASTER LITIGATION.
CourtU.S. District Court — Southern District of West Virginia

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

John D. Holschuh and Alexander, Ebinger, Holschuh, Fisher & McAlister, Columbus, Ohio, and Harry Alan Sherman, Pittsburgh, Pa., for plaintiffs.

Lawrence Klinger, U. S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for defendant United States.*

FRANK A. KAUFMAN, District Judge.

Late in the afternoon of December 15, 1967 the Silver Bridge, spanning the Ohio River from Point Pleasant, West Virginia to Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed. Thirty-one automobiles fell into the river; forty-six persons died and others were injured. As a result, fifty-six suits were filed in the United States District Courts for the Districts of West Virginia, Ohio and Maryland. In those fifty-six cases, one or more of the following parties were named as defendants: United States Steel Corporation, J. E. Greiner Co., and certain of its predecessors and successors (known as the "Greiner" defendants), the State of Ohio, and the United States of America.1 In only fifteen of those cases was the United States named as a defendant. Two of those fifteen cases are duplicates of two other cases. All fifteen involve wrongful death actions. A few of the original fifty-six suits were brought to recover damages for loss of property. Jurisdiction exists pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ? 1332, except with regard to the claims against the United States in connection with which jurisdiction is present under 28 U.S.C. ? 1346(b).2

On April 20, 1970 and subsequent thereto, acting pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ? 1407, the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation transferred the cases from the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Maryland to the Southern District of West Virginia, and together with Chief Judge Haynsworth of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, designated the undersigned to sit in that district as the section 1407 transferee judge. In re Silver Bridge Disaster, 311 F.Supp. 1345 (Jud.Pan.Mult.Lit.1970).

On November 16, 1973, all of the claims of the plaintiffs against United States Steel and the "Greiner" defendants3 were settled, thus disposing entirely of forty-one of the fifty-six cases. At this time, only the claims against the United States Government in the remaining fifteen cases are pending. All of those cases were instituted in the Southern District of Ohio.

Plaintiffs base their claims against the United States Government upon three theories: (1) federal approval of the bridge's design and construction ("Issue I"); (2) activities of the United States in and around the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers between 1927 and 1967 ("Issue II"); and (3) the 1952-1954 Ohio River Crossings Survey ("Issue III").

ISSUE I
A. The Factual Background4

Sometime prior to March 1926 the Gallia County Ohio River Bridge Company (hereinafter "Bridge Company"), an Ohio corporation, was incorporated for the purpose of constructing a toll bridge across the Ohio River between Gallipolis, Ohio and Point Pleasant, West Virginia.5 The Bridge Act of 1906 (currently codified with modifications as 33 U.S.C. ? 491 et seq., however, requires, inter alia, congressional consent to construction of any bridge over navigable waters of the United States. In March, 1926 two bills were introduced in the Congress to permit construction by the Bridge Company of the Silver Bridge. Senate Bill 3499 made consent conditional upon approval by the Secretary of War and the Chief of Engineers of the War Department, of the plans and specifications, including the determination that the plans be "* * * also satisfactory from the standpoint of volume and weight of the traffic which will pass over it." In contrast, House Bill 10169 simply granted consent to build "in accordance with the provisions" of the Bridge Act of 1906. On March 16, 1926, Acting Secretary of War, Mac Nider, informed the House Commerce Committee that the War Department had no objection to the House Bill. As to the Senate Bill, Secretary Davis wrote on March 20, 1926 to Senator Jones of the Senate Commerce Committee stating that if the War Department was to be required to approve such bridges from the standpoint of weight and volume of traffic, the same would pose substantially greater duties and work upon that Department.6 Eventually, Congress simply enacted consent legislation drafted in conformity with a standard form previously developed by the House and Senate Commerce committees for just such bills. Among other things the Act as enacted permitted the Bridge Company to build "at a point suitable to the interests of navigation between a point at or near Gallipolis * * *", and granted congressional consent "in accordance with the provisions" of the Bridge Act of 1906. The special consent as finally passed contained no explicit condition concerning the capacity of the Silver Bridge from the standpoint of volume or weight of traffic, nor did it otherwise refer to construction except in the context of construction costs as they related to the fixing of tolls and condemnation rights by the States.

In December 1926, after the statute's enactment, the District Engineer of the Corps of Engineers of the War Department (hereinafter District Engineer) furnished Form 92b entitled "Application for Approval of Plans of a Bridge to Cross Navigable Waters of the United States". Although Form 92b did not require submission of the Bridge's specifications, it did request submission by the Bridge Company of proposed plans to the extent stated in paragraph 3 of the form. That paragraph provides:

(a) A map showing the proposed location, and the waterway for the distance of 1 mile above and 1 mile below, with the data necessary to enable the Chief of Engineers and the Secretary of War to determine whether the location is a proper one; also an inset sketch or a small scale map showing the general location of the bridge relative to towns in the vicinity and the position of the waterway relative to other waterways of the region.
(b) Plan of the bridge showing the length and height of spans; width of draw openings; position of piers, abutments, fenders, etc., and those features which affect navigation, giving on both horizontal sections and elevations, the outside structure lines separating the area left for navigation from the area occupied by the bridge, and, in figures, the least clear width of openings at right angles to the axis of the channel, also the least clear heights with reference to water surfaces as specified on the reverse side of this sheet.

Instructions on the reverse side of the application include the following:

(e) STRUCTURAL DETAILS. ?€” Only those should be shown which are needed to illustrate the effect of the proposed structure on navigation. . . .

On December 29, 1926, the Bridge Company submitted the construction plans on Form 92b to the District Engineer who in turn forwarded the application and plans to the Chief of Engineers of the Corps, through the Division Engineer. Less than a week later the Division Engineer recommended to the Corps that a Board of Officers be appointed to consider the application. The board which was subsequently convened held a public hearing, and thereafter notified the Corps that the applicant had agreed to move one of the piers forty feet toward the Ohio shore, and that the board recommended approval of the plans as so amended. The amended application then spiraled its way up through government offices until it reached the Secretary of War, who granted the necessary approval.

On April 28, 1927, the contractor for the Bridge Company, the American Bridge Company,7 (hereinafter "American") seeking a permit for construction in navigable waters, sent the District Engineer tracings showing the location of the piers and box type cofferdams to go around them. Those plans did not conform to the plans previously approved by the Secretary of War and the Chief of Engineers. For that reason, no permit issued pending receipt of revised plans. On May 2, 1927 the contractor submitted plans conforming with the officially approved plans, and a week later the Division Engineer approved the permit on the recommendation of the District Engineer.

Soon thereafter, a new District Engineer was appointed who requested a set of plans and specifications for the bridge. In response, the consulting engineers (Greiner) for the Bridge Company, sent the District Engineer a set of plans and specifications. The latter, in accordance with the approved plan, called for a straight wire cable design for the superstructure, but however also included two alternatives for the superstructure in the place of the wire cable design, i. e., (1) a long lay wire rope cable, and (2) heat treated I-bars (sometimes written as "eye-bars"). In a letter accompanying those plans, the consulting engineers wrote the District Engineer as follows:

In accordance with your request we are sending you a set of plans and specifications for the Point Pleasant Highway Bridge. The cable design calls for a straight wire cable. In asking for bids on the superstructure two alternatives to this, namely, a long lay wire rope cable or heat treated I-bars may be bid upon. We expect to have these bids in within a short time, after which the type of cable will be decided upon and we will forward you additional plans covering this part of the work.
This bridge is designed with a 22' roadway and a 5'6" sidewalk with provision in the future, if traffic demands it, for changing the sidewalk, placing it on brackets outside the stiffening truss, thus increasing the floor width sufficient to provide for three lanes of traffic.
The bridge is designed for American Society of Civil Engineers H15 loading except that the uniform load used in the design of girders and trusses is increased 50 #, making it 1400 # per lineal foot, and a 42,000 # concentrated load instead of
...

To continue reading

Request your trial
13 cases
  • Bowen v. U.S.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit
    • 9 Febrero 1978
    ...as in the view of the District Court it was in this case, to decide the choice-of-law question. E. g., In re Silver Bridge Disaster Litigation, 381 F.Supp. 931 (S.D.W.Va.1974); Kantlehner v. United States, 279 F.Supp. 122 (E.D.N.Y.1967).15 See Restatement (Second) Conflict of Laws § 145, et......
  • Blessing v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania
    • 19 Abril 1978
    ...(decision not to reject highway plans), cert. denied, 371 U.S. 923, 83 S.Ct. 290, 9 L.Ed.2d 231 (1962); In re Silver Bridge Disaster Litigation, 381 F.Supp. 931 (S.D.W.Va.1974) (acceptance of bridge plans). As did Griffin in its context, see note 30 infra & accompanying text, some courts lo......
  • Barcelo v. Brown
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico
    • 17 Septiembre 1979
    ...1427 (1953). Claims against the Government based upon the concept of nuisance however, are included. In Re: Silver Bridge Disaster Litigation, 381 F.Supp. 931, 967 (S.D.W.Va., 1974). But the statute specifically requires an initial presentation of the claim to the appropriate federal agency......
  • Limone v. U.S.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts
    • 17 Septiembre 2004
    ...an explosive device from a crashed Army airplane in 1944 was injured in February 1945 when device exploded); In re Silver Bridge Disaster Litigation, 381 F.Supp. 931 (S.D.W.Va.1974)(negligence claim based on Army's building bridge in 1928 accrued in 1967 when the bridge 17. During these rai......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT