Rawls Brothers Contractors, Inc. v. United States

• Citation: 251 F. Supp. 47
• Decision Date: 12 January 1966
• Docket Number: No. 63-9-Adm.-J.,63-9-Adm.-J.
• Parties: RAWLS BROTHERS CONTRACTORS, INC., Libelant, v. The UNITED STATES of America, Florida Towing Corporation, and the TUGS W. E. COPPEDGE and S. H. COPPEDGE and their engines, tackle, apparel, furniture and other appurtenances, Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Florida

251 F. Supp. 47

RAWLS BROTHERS CONTRACTORS, INC., Libelant, v. The UNITED STATES of America, Florida Towing Corporation, and the TUGS W. E. COPPEDGE and S. H. COPPEDGE and their engines, tackle, apparel, furniture and other appurtenances, Respondents.

No. 63-9-Adm.-J.

United States District Court M. D. Florida, Jacksonville Division.

January 12, 1966.

Bedell, Bedell, Dittmar & Smith, Jacksonville, Fla., for libelant.

Edward F. Boardman, U. S. Atty., Jacksonville, Fla., and Allen van Emmerick, Atty., Admiralty & Shipping Section, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for respondent United States.

Ulmer, Murchison, Kent, Ashby & Ball, Jacksonville, Fla., for respondents Florida Towing Corp. and claimant Wayland T. Coppedge & Son, Corp. and their surety Firemen's Fund Insurance Co.

SIMPSON, Chief Judge.

On August 6, 1962, at the shipyard leased and operated by libelant Rawls Brothers Contractors, Inc., in Jacksonville, Florida, the USS TRAVERSE COUNTY left her mooring under her own power, with assistance from the respondent tugs W. E. COPPEDGE and S. H. COPPEDGE and under the direction of tugmaster and docking-pilot Joseph N. Durst, an employee of claimant-respondent Florida Towing Corporation. In the course of the undocking operation the TRAVERSE COUNTY collided with a dolphin that was a part of a drydock installation in the yard, and this proceeding resulted.

Numerous exceptions were filed by the parties challenging the legal sufficiency of various allegations in the pleadings of opposing parties. Ruling was reserved on those exceptions. Each such exception is now overruled so that the evidence introduced in support of each averment may be given such effect as in law it is entitled to. The case was tried beginning March 9, 1964, on the basic issue of fault, on the issues of the damages suffered by libelant and the United States as a result of the collision and on factual issues affecting the application in this case of the "pilotage clause" and "warranty clause" that were published by Florida Towing in a pamphlet containing the schedule of rates for tug services generally charged by Florida Towing at the time of the collision. At the conclusion of the trial, the Court announced a general finding that the collision resulted from the negligence of Florida Towing Corporation employees, including Joseph N. Durst, who participated in the undocking operation. These findings of fact and conclusions of law dispose of the issues consistently with those announced general findings.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Rawls Brothers Contractors, Inc., libelant, operates a shipyard on the north bank of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida, by the use of land and appurtenances (including the subject dolphin) leased in 1960 from Commodores Point Terminal Corporation, which has appeared herein, has agreed to be bound by the Court's disposition of the matters in litigation, and has consented of record to Rawls' prosecution of the claim herein made and to collection by Rawls of any amount found to be due on account of damage to the dolphin. The dolphin was constructed of steel bearing piles driven to bedrock beneath the river as support for a 70-ton concrete cap to which was attached a mooring device for a section of the 18,000-ton steel drydock AFDM-9, which was leased by Rawls from the United States Navy.

2. The United States of America, respondent, owns and its Navy Department operates the public vessel USS TRAVERSE COUNTY (LST-1160), which, having completed repairs at libelant's shipyard, was moored alongside libelant's pier No. 3 in the early morning hours of August 6, 1962, and was awaiting tug assistance into the stream of the St. Johns River.

3. The contract of repair between Rawls and the United States provided in part:

"After completion of all work, the contractor will furnish tug and pilot services for movement of vessel to the area adjacent to his repair facilities for acceptance of tow and/or for vessel to proceed under its own power."

On the afternoon of August 3, 1962, in order to furnish the undocking services contemplated by the contract, dockmaster Noel Peppers of Rawls had telephoned Wayland T. Coppedge, President of Florida Towing Corporation, and had orally requested that Florida Towing send two tugs to assist the TRAVERSE COUNTY in sailing at 8:00 o'clock a. m. on August 6. Mr. Coppedge stated to Mr. Peppers that the tugs would be there. That was the extent of the conversation.

4. The Diesel tug W. E. COPPEDGE, owned by claimant Wayland T. Coppedge & Son Corporation, and the steam tug S. H. COPPEDGE, owned by respondent Florida Towing Corporation, were provided by Florida Towing Corporation at about 8:00 o'clock of the morning of August 6, 1962, to assist the TRAVERSE COUNTY from the pier and into the stream of the St. Johns River. The tugs were manned by employees of Florida Towing Corporation and were under the direction of that respondent's employee Joseph N. Durst, master of the S. H. COPPEDGE, whose duties as an experienced docking pilot included that of coordinating the operations of the assisting tugs with the operation of the vessel being assisted, in this case the TRAVERSE COUNTY.

5. Captain Durst reported aboard the TRAVERSE COUNTY at about 8:00 a. m. on August 6, 1962, and proceeded to the bridge, the station customarily used by him in docking or undocking vessels under their own power and with the assistance of tugs. He was soon joined on the bridge by the TRAVERSE COUNTY's commanding officer, Captain Holmes, Lt. Commander USN, who advised Captain Durst of the vessel's general handling characteristics. Durst was familiar with the handling characteristics of vessels of the TRAVERSE COUNTY's class not only from his previous experience with other such vessels but also from his experience in undocking the TRAVERSE COUNTY at libelant's shipyard for sea trials a week before the day of the collision. Also on the bridge were the Executive Officer, the special sea detail Officer of the Deck and Junior Officer of the Deck, bar pilot Philips, and various enlisted men assigned as lookouts, navigational assistants, and log keepers. The day was fair, with little or no wind, and about a two-knot tidal current ebbing downriver, pressing against TRAVERSE COUNTY's port side.

6. As is customary at special sea detail, TRAVERSE COUNTY's engines were on direct pilot house control, running at a constant 260 rotations of the propeller shafts per minute. TRAVERSE COUNTY has two propeller shafts, each separately controllable as to shaft rotations, and each equipped with separately controllable variable pitch propellers. The speed and direction of the ship is controlled by adjusting the amount and direction of the pitch of the propeller blades. This is done by actuating controls in the pilot house, directly below the conning station in use on this occasion, according to engine orders received from the conning officer. Helm orders are executed on a typical ship's wheel. The pilot house on this occasion was manned by a helmsman, a lee helmsman who operated the direct pilot house engine control console, and an engine order telegraph operator, who logged the engine orders in a bell book, and paralleled the engine orders executed on the console by repeating them on a standard naval engine order telegraph, to advise the engine room of engine orders in case of emergency.

7. Shortly before 8:30 a. m., Captain Holmes had all lines readied to be cast off, and gave pilot Durst the conn. At 8:34 pilot Durst ordered all lines cast off, and backed TRAVERSE COUNTY out of the slip. The W. E. COPPEDGE "caught," a term denoting a tug's coming up next to a ship and making fast a line to her, TRAVERSE COUNTY's starboard quarter, and assisted the undocking by holding the stern up against the ebb tide as TRAVERSE COUNTY backed across the stream and its current. As TRAVERSE COUNTY's bow cleared the pier, the S. H. COPPEDGE nosed against her starboard bow and likewise held her up against the current, but did not put a line aboard. It is customary for assisting tugs to make a line fast to the assisted vessel, and to do so with or without the orders of the docking pilot.

8. Acting thus together, TRAVERSE COUNTY and her tugs backed across the St. Johns River, toward another shipyard across from libelant's. Noting that TRAVERSE COUNTY was closing on ships moored there, Captain Holmes advised pilot Durst that TRAVERSE COUNTY, like others of her class, was slow in reacting go an ahead bell when she had sternway on. Whereupon pilot Durst gave ahead bells, arresting TRAVERSE COUNTY's sternway at about 100 feet from the ships astern, and commencing a swing of TRAVERSE COUNTY's bow downstream, toward the sea. Previous to arresting sternway, pilot Durst had ordered the S. H. COPPEDGE to shift from the starboard to the port bow, to assist in heading TRAVERSE COUNTY downstream. Again, the S. H. COPPEDGE did not make fast a line to TRAVERSE COUNTY.

9. The S. H. COPPEDGE pushed TRAVERSE COUNTY's bow to starboard under "two jacks," about two-thirds speed, pursuant to pilot Durst's orders. The S. H. COPPEDGE ceased pushing at or very little short of midchannel, as TRAVERSE COUNTY was headed nearly downstream on or parallel to the channel axis. But under the momentum of S. H. COPPEDGE's push, TRAVERSE COUNTY swung unchecked across the axis, and toward the south bank. At this point she had little or no headway on, and Captain Holmes advised pilot Durst that, when light as she was, her bow swung rapidly once started and that strong engine orders were required to check the swing. Pilot Durst acknowledged this, and sent the W. E. COPPEDGE from the starboard quarter to the starboard bow, to push against and arrest the swing. The swing was stopped with TRAVERSE COUNTY about 45° from the channel axis, and her bow about 200 feet from the south bank. Although there was ample time to do so, the W. E. COPPEDGE did not put a line up on TRAVERSE COUNTY's...