Treasure Salvors v. UNIDENTIFIED, ETC., VESSEL

• Decision Date: 02 July 1981
• Docket Number: No. 75-1416-Civ-SMA.,75-1416-Civ-SMA.
• Citation: 546 F. Supp. 919
• Parties: TREASURE SALVORS, INC., a corporation, and Armada Research Corp., a corporation, Plaintiffs, v. The UNIDENTIFIED WRECKED AND ABANDONED SAILING VESSEL, "NUESTRA SENORA DE ATOCHA," et al., and Olin Frick, John Gasque, William Riley, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

546 F. Supp. 919

TREASURE SALVORS, INC., a corporation, and Armada Research Corp., a corporation, Plaintiffs, v. The UNIDENTIFIED WRECKED AND ABANDONED SAILING VESSEL, "NUESTRA SENORA DE ATOCHA," et al., and Olin Frick, John Gasque, William Riley, et al., Defendants.

No. 75-1416-Civ-SMA.

United States District Court, S. D. Florida, Key West Division.

July 2, 1981.

David Paul Horan, Key West, Fla., for plaintiffs.

Reginald M. Hayden, Hayden & Milliken, Miami, Fla., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION CONTAINING FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

ARONOVITZ, District Judge.

A modern-day odyssey of the sea has again unfolded in the United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, at Key West, Florida, between opposing salvors and/or treasure hunters seeking to possess the wealth of Midas in a scenario of true life so spectacular as to relegate the sea tales of Herman Melville and the glamour of a Hollywood production to miniscule insignificance.

This battle over a shallow-water wreck site off the Keys and shoals of the Florida coastline has the drama associated with the high seas and involves the exercise of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction by this Court.

Procedural Posture

In the initial chapter of this continuing saga, on June 13, 1975, Treasure Salvors, Inc. and Armada Research Corp. filed this in rem and quasi-in rem (on in personam principles) action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, seeking possession and confirmation of their title to the remains of an ancient shipwreck they had discovered, believed to be the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, or alternatively an award for salvage services. The United States intervened, counterclaiming for title to the vessel under the provisions of the Antiquities Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 432 and 433, and the Abandoned Property Act, 40 U.S.C. § 310. The late Honorable William O. Mehrtens, Senior United States District Judge, entered summary judgment in favor of Treasure Salvors as against the United States, and also decreed that Treasure Salvors had sole title and right of possession to the vessel and its cargo "wherever the same may be found" (as against all claimants). See Treasure Salvors v. Abandoned Sailing Vessel, 408 F.Supp. 907 (S.D. Fla.1976). The Fifth Circuit affirmed insofar as the ruling resolved the competing claims of Treasure Salvors and the United States, but refused to approve that portion of the ruling which held that Treasure Salvors was entitled to sole and exclusive title and possession as "to other claimants, if any there be, who are not parties or privies to this litigation." Treasure Salvors v. Unidentified Wrecked, etc., 569 F.2d 330 (5th Cir. 1978) (Treasure Salvors I).

In a second and subsequent proceeding herein, Treasure Salvors and the State of Florida, Division of Archives, were opposing parties. In the belief that the Atocha lay on submerged land owned by Florida, Treasure Salvors had entered into a series of annual contracts with the State of Florida whereby Treasure Salvors was allowed to conduct salvage operations on the Atocha site with the State of Florida to receive 25% of the property recovered. During 1975, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered an opinion in U.S. v. Florida, 420 U.S. 531, 95 S.Ct. 1162, 43 L.Ed.2d 375 (1975), and subsequently U.S. v. Florida, 425 U.S. 791, 96 S.Ct. 1840, 48 L.Ed.2d 388 (1976). According to the Fifth Circuit in Treasure Salvors II, infra, at p. 1350, "In U.S. v. Florida, however, the Supreme Court held that Florida's ownership claim was without merit and that the lands never belonged to Florida."; and again in Treasure Salvors III, infra, at p. 563, "In 1975, the Supreme Court rejected Florida's claim to ownership of that portion of the continental shelf where the remains of the Atocha rest, United States v. Florida, 420 U.S. 531, 95 S.Ct. 1162, 43 L.Ed.2d 375 (1975)." Judge Mehrtens thereafter rendered judgment in favor of Treasure Salvors and against the State of Florida. Again the Fifth Circuit upheld the decision on the grounds that the contract between Treasure Salvors and Florida was invalid due to mutual mistake and a failure of consideration.¹Treasure Salvors v. Unidentified Wrecked, etc., 459 F.Supp. 507 (S.D.Fla.1978), aff'd 621 F.2d 1340 (5th Cir. 1980), cert. granted 451 U.S. 982, 101 S.Ct. 2312, 68 L.Ed.2d 838 (1981) (Treasure Salvors II). This matter remains pending on certiorari review in the United States Supreme Court.

The dispute presently before the Court is between Treasure Salvors and another Key West based treasure salvor group. Treasure Salvors initially defined the location of the wreck in terms of a circle having a radius of 2500 yards from a point at 24°31.5' North Latitude and 82°50' West Longitude, where a large anchor believed to have come from the Atocha had been found. This description of the location was amended by Treasure Salvors on two subsequent occasions, the last amendment describing an area encompassing an axis from the initial point to a second point at coordinates 24°30' North Latitude and 82°15' West Longitude, where a second anchor, also believed to have come from the Atocha, was found, a distance alleged to be 9,750 yards from point to point, extending 2500 yards on each side of the axis. At the same time that this latter amendment was filed, Treasure Salvors sought and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order, claiming that Olin Frick, John Gasque, William Riley and the Masters of the motor vessels "Juniper" and "Seeker", rival salvors, were wrongfully interfering with Treasure Salvors' possession and salvage of the Atocha by conducting salvage operations of their own within 1500 yards of the point at which the second anchor was found and that threatening shots had been fired from aboard the Juniper. Judge Mehrtens subsequently issued a preliminary injunction, which prohibited the defendants from interfering with the search and salvage operations of Treasure Salvors and from searching for or salvaging within the area extending 2500 yards to either side of a line drawn between the two points where the anchors were found, that is, the points described in the amendment. Defendants appealed that Order.

The Fifth Circuit, after concluding that it had jurisdiction to review the Order issuing the preliminary injunction, held that the District Court did have jurisdiction to resolve the dispute between these parties. Treasure Salvors v. Unidentified Wrecked, etc., 640 F.2d 560 (5th Cir. 1981) (Treasure Salvors III). The Court found that 28 U.S.C. § 1333, which grants federal courts jurisdiction over all cases involving admiralty or maritime claims, provided subject matter jurisdiction over the competing salvage claims of the parties, despite the fact that the remains of the Atocha lie outside the territorial waters of the United States. Id. at 566. The Court further found that the District Court had in personam jurisdiction over the defendants and that since the salvor's claim was not one against the vessel, the fact that the Atocha lay outside the territorial waters of the United States was irrelevant. Accordingly, the Fifth Circuit stated that the district court was "fully competent to adjudicate the dispute." Id. at 568.

Having concluded that the Order Granting Preliminary Injunction was appealable and that the district court had jurisdiction to enter the Order, the Fifth Circuit addressed the propriety of the preliminary injunction under the criteria set out in, e. g., Canal Authority of the State of Florida v. Callaway, 489 F.2d 567 (5th Cir. 1974). In attempting this review, however, the panel felt hindered by the fact that the decision to issue the preliminary injunction had apparently been based on evidence adduced at previous hearings of which the district court had taken judicial notice, rather than evidence adduced at the hearing on the preliminary injunction, and that these prior proceedings had not been included in the record on appeal by the parties. Because of these deficiencies, the panel stated it was unable to determine what factors persuaded the district court that the Canal Authority prerequisites had been established. Thereupon, the Fifth Circuit concluded:

In light of these circumstances, we decline to conclude that the district judge, who had the benefit of much greater familiarity with the factual problems presented by the case than we have in view of the state of the record in this case, abused his discretion in entering this injunction. However, given the exceptional nature of this injunction, and the burdens it places on the defendants, we think that the merits of this dispute should be resolved as quickly as possible. For this reason, we modify the district court's preliminary injunction to provide that it shall expire no later than 90 days following the issuance of our mandate. Thus, the parties to the dispute and the district court should arrange for a final hearing on the merits of this controversy during that period.

Pursuant to the directions of the Fifth Circuit panel in Treasure Salvors III, a Final Hearing on Petitioners' Request for a Permanent Injunction was held over a four-day period. At the hearing, the Court received testimony and numerous exhibits in evidence, viewed a 47-minute National Geographic Society film on the Atocha search, saw more than 100 photo slides and heard testimony thereon, and had the benefit of counsel's oral argument as well as extensive memoranda of law. After considering all the aforegoing and the applicable law, and being otherwise fully advised in the premises, the Court sets forth herein its Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

Background

The Tierra Firme Flota, consisting of 28 ships, sailed from Havana, Cuba on September 4, 1622. Included among the galleons were the Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita. The fleet was bound for Spain with cargo of gold and silver bullion, specie, tobacco, copper ore and indigo. In the...