In Re Sincere Navigation Corporation

• Decision Date: 17 May 1971
• Docket Number: 69-2903,Civ. A. No. 68-2254,69-2899,69-2341,69-2855,68-2243,69-2889,69-2340,69-2742,69-2854,69-2628,69-2613,68-2250,69-2923,69-2743,69-2924 and 70-40.,69-2535
• Citation: 327 F. Supp. 1024
• Parties: In the Matter of the Complaint of SINCERE NAVIGATION CORPORATION, as owner of the S/S HELENA, for Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability and Consolidated Cases.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

327 F. Supp. 1024

In the Matter of the Complaint of SINCERE NAVIGATION CORPORATION, as owner of the S/S HELENA, for Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability and Consolidated Cases.

Civ. A. Nos. 68-2254, 68-2243, 68-2250, 69-2340, 69-2341, 69-2535, 69-2613, 69-2628, 69-2742, 69-2743, 69-2854, 69-2855, 69-2889, 69-2899, 69-2903, 69-2923, 69-2924 and 70-40.

United States District Court, E. D. Louisiana, New Orleans Division.

May 17, 1971.

Gerald J. Gallinghouse, U. S. Atty., Allen van Emerik, New Orleans, La., for United States.

George Frilot, A. J. McNamara, Joseph Horne, Charles M. Steen, Jerry G. Jones, Louis B. Merhige, Raymond A. McGuire, David H. Burrow, New Orleans, La., for individual Claimants.

Patrick L. Burke, Joy S. Miller, Joseph M. Brush, New Orleans, La., for Sincere Navigation and its Insurers.

RUBIN, District Judge:

OPINION ON MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT WITH RESPECT TO DAMAGES CLAIMED FOR SALVAGE, SEARCH, AND WRECK REMOVAL EXPENSES

The United States seeks to recover for the damages occasioned as a result of the collision of the S/S HELENA and the Buoy Tender WHITE ALDER. The claims for the loss of the WHITE ALDER and the buoys aboard her at the time of collision and for recovery of the cost of medical care to the survivors, have been referred to a Magistrate as Special Master. The United States seeks also to recover for the expenses incurred in its search for survivors and in its efforts to salvage the vessel or remove the wreckage. The HELENA moves for summary judgment as to these items.

It is clear that the United States can receive no award for salvage as such because naught was saved. Norris, The Law of Salvage § 88 (1958). The WHITE ALDER came to rest in 70 feet of water. The shifting bed of the river there engulfed her.

As the Supreme Court observed in The Blackwall, 1869, 10 Wall. 1, 77 U.S. 1, 12, 19 L.Ed. 870, "Salvage is the compensation allowed to persons by whose assistance a ship or her cargo has been saved, in whole or in part from the impending peril of the sea * * * Success is essential to the claim * * *." The Fifth Circuit recently allowed salvage to the United States for services rendered to the AMOCO VIRGINIA, but in that case more than $900,000 worth of property was preserved for the benefit of the vessel's owner. AMOCO VIRGINIA, S. S., 5 Cir. 1969, 417 F.2d 164.

But some of the expenses incurred here cannot be called salvage. On the night of December 7, 1969, the United States as owner of the WHITE ALDER, knew only that she had sunk in the river. It was necessary to make a search to determine whether or not she could be raised and saved.

It was the duty of the United States as owner of the WHITE ALDER, to minimize damages. The Baltimore, 8 Wall. 377, 75 U.S. 377, 387, 19 L.Ed. 463. This duty imposed on it the obligation of making a good faith attempt to determine the feasibility of salvage. Rugo Constr. Co. v. New England Foundation Co., 1 Cir. 1949, 172 F.2d 964; O'Brien Bros. v. The Helen B. Moran, 2 Cir. 1947, 160 F.2d 502. If it did not, it might be charged with attempting to foist off as a total loss a vessel salvageable for less than her value.

If the owner has acted reasonably, considering the location and circumstances of the wreck, "he is entitled to recover from the tortfeasor his reasonable expenses of raising and removal in addition either to the fair value of his vessel, if she eventually proves to be a total loss, or to the reasonable cost of repairing her, etc., if she eventually proves to be only a partial loss." 172 F. 2d at 968. Whether or not the United States acted reasonably in investigating the condition of the vessel, and, if so, the extent of the monetary reimbursement due, is an issue remaining to be resolved.

As a private vessel owner, the United States also had the duty to the seamen aboard the WHITE ALDER to search for survivors of the wreck, and, with respect to those killed in her service, to seek to recover their bodies. See Lynn-Ventura, D.Mass.1956, 1957 A.M.C. 716, 717. It has been said that humanitarian acts are not compensable in maritime law, and that the saving of human life, unaccompanied by the saving of property, still goes unrewarded. Gilmore and Black, Law of Admiralty, p. 444; Norris, Law of Salvage, § 24. Even if this be so, the owner of a vessel who seeks to save his crew or recover their bodies is not free to be a samaritan, or to refrain from acting, burdened only with a guilty conscience. He has a duty to save the members of his crew, or, if they lie dead, to recover their remains and return them to their families.

It is evident that the United States Coast Guard might have performed similar investigative and rescue operations had the collision involved two private vessels. There is no contention that such operations, carried out under 14 U.S.C. § 83, would make the private ship owners liable to the United States for the expenses entailed. Where, traditionally, recovery has not been permitted the United States for the governmental services it provides, the courts have been reluctant to...