United States v. Marunaka Maru No. 88

• Decision Date: 31 March 1983
• Docket Number: No. A 81-330 Civil.,A 81-330 Civil.
• Citation: 559 F. Supp. 1365
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. MARUNAKA MARU NO. 88, with its fishing gear, furniture, appurtenances, stores, fish, and cargo, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Alaska

559 F. Supp. 1365

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. MARUNAKA MARU NO. 88, with its fishing gear, furniture, appurtenances, stores, fish, and cargo, Defendant.

No. A 81-330 Civil.

United States District Court, D. Alaska.

March 31, 1983.

Michael R. Spaan, U.S. Atty., Gregory C. Taylor, Asst. U.S. Atty., Anchorage, Alaska, for plaintiff.

Richard J. Riordan, Jr., Bradbury, Bliss & Riordan, Inc., Anchorage, Alaska, for defendant.

OPINION

FITZGERALD, District Judge.

The MARUNAKA MARU NO. 88, a Japanese high seas gill-netter, was sighted by the Coast Guard on June 10, 1981 approximately 49 miles south of Kiska Island within the Fishery Conservation Zone. On June 11, 1981, the MARUNAKA MARU was boarded and seized by the Coast Guard for alleged violations of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 (FMCA).¹ After being seized, the vessel was brought to Kodiak, Alaska where custody was transferred to the Coast Guard Support Center.

According to the government's complaint, when first sighted, the MARUNAKA MARU's gillnets were aboard the vessel and fish were observed in the nets. The Coast Guard cutter CONFIDENCE attempted to stop and board the MARUNAKA MARU for inspection under provisions of the FCMA. Efforts were made to communicate with the vessel by various means including radio, flag hoist, semaphore, flashing lights, loud hailer and finally warning shots fired across the bow. Despite these efforts, the MARUNAKA MARU refused to stop and for over 19 hours the Coast Guard maintained close pursuit. The government claims that, during the chase, the MARUNAKA MARU maneuvered to ram the CONFIDENCE, posing a serious safety threat to the officers and crew aboard the cutter. Finally, the CONFIDENCE, with the aid of Japanese patrol boats, succeeded in stopping and boarding the MARUNAKA MARU.

Once aboard the vessel, the Coast Guard conducted a search and discovered that the MARUNAKA MARU did not possess a fishing permit required by the FCMA. The government also contends the search revealed that fish aboard the vessel had been caught or processed unlawfully within the Fishery Conservation Zone, a 197 mile wide economic zone extensively regulated under the provisions of the FCMA. In addition, the Coast Guard learned that officers of the MARUNAKA MARU had failed to maintain the required daily cumulative catch log and that the vessel's international radio call sign had been deliberately concealed under tarpaulins.

On June 30, 1981, the United States attorney filed a complaint in this court for forfeiture of the vessel and its catch. Attached to the government's pleadings was a warrant of arrest to be issued by the clerk of court. The clerk, however, relying upon the decision in Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. The Vessel BAY RIDGE, 509 F.Supp. 1115 (D.Ak.1980) appeal docketed, Nos. 81-3229, 3249 (9th Cir.1981),² declined to issue process without a pre-arrest hearing. Apparently the clerk was unaware that THE BAY RIDGE expressly approved an earlier decision, United States v. KAIYO MARU NO. 53, 503 F.Supp. 1075 (D.Ak.1980), aff'd 699 F.2d 989 (9th Cir.1983), holding that a Coast Guard seizure authorized under the FCMA obviated the constitutional necessity for a pre-arrest hearing. In any event, no legal process initiating in rem proceedings in this court was issued by the clerk despite the government's request.

Soon after the complaint was filed, attorneys for claimant, Osaka Gyogyo K.K., owner of the vessel, entered a restricted appearance under Supplemental Rule E(8), Fed.R.Civ.P., and applied for a hearing to set bond and have the vessel and her catch released from official custody.³

The hearing was promptly scheduled before U.S. Magistrate Peter Aschenbrenner. Before the hearing, claimant's attorney and the assistant U.S. attorney reached an agreement that the vessel could be released once claimant filed a special release bond. The attorneys were unable to agree on terms for release of the catch.⁴

After taking evidence, the magistrate fixed the value of the catch at $87,000. He then authorized the U.S. marshal to release the vessel and its catch as soon as the claimant filed bonds and security of $150,000 for the vessel and $87,000 for the catch.⁵ On July 2, 1981 the claimant provided $237,000 in certificates of deposit to the clerk of court together with a special release bond. The vessel and its catch were then released from custody and the vessel returned to Japan.

The MARUNAKA MARU has filed a Rule 12(b) motion to dismiss the in rem proceeding stating that the court failed to obtain jurisdiction over the vessel. The claim is made that the vessel was never properly arrested by process under Rules C and E, Fed.R.Civ.P. (Supplemental Rules for Certain Admiralty and Maritime Claims), and that she is now outside of the court's jurisdiction and likely to remain so.

It is well established that before an in rem proceeding can be maintained against a vessel, the vessel must be within the territorial confines of the court's jurisdiction. American Bank of Wage Claims v. Registry of District Court of Guam, 431 F.2d 1215, 1218 (9th Cir.1970). In the usual course, jurisdiction is obtained by serving a warrant of arrest pursuant to Supplemental Rule C(3). Rule C(3), Fed.R.Civ.P. (Supplemental Rules for Certain Admiralty and Maritime Claims); accord, United States v. KAIYO MARU NO. 53, 699 F.2d at 998, 999 (9th Cir.1983).⁶ These requirements reflect the firmly established admiralty fiction that the vessel has an independent identity and must be brought before the court with process. Continental Grain Co. v. Barge FBL-585, 364 U.S. 19, 22-23, 80 S.Ct. 1470, 1472-73, 4 L.Ed.2d 1540 (1960).⁷

A party may, however, by appropriate conduct waive strict adherence to the formal requirements necessary to establish in rem jurisdiction. Traditionally, admiralty courts have allowed stipulations for value, general and special bonds, and letters of undertaking to serve as a substitute for the vessel.⁸ In effect, a claimant who executes a bond or stipulation for example, consents to the court's in rem jurisdiction even though the vessel is subsequently released from the marshal's custody.⁹ Furthermore, jurisdiction may attach even though the vessel is not actually brought into the custody of the U.S. marshal under court process:

Ordinarily, seizure of the property precedes the appearance of the claimants in the suit; but it cannot make any material difference whether the claimants and their sureties voluntarily enter into the stipulation before actual seizure to avoid the expense and delay and inconvenience thereof, or whether they wait until the vessel has been taken into actual custody under the monition. The effect is the same so far as they are concerned. In the one case, the claimants are permitted to remain in possession of the vessel; in the other it is redelivered to them.... The original object of the stipulation was to avoid the question of jurisdiction, and the agreement on the part of the stipulators to permit execution to issue against them in case of default, and abide and pay the amount awarded against them on final decree, was considered a waiver of all objection based on failure to serve process.

THE FRANK VANDERKERCHEN, 87 F. 763, 765 (D.N.J.1898).¹⁰

Congress has expressly authorized release of the vessel and its catch from custody pending in rem forfeiture proceedings under the FCMA:

Any officer authorized to serve any process in rem which is issued by a court having jurisdiction under Section 1861(d) of this title shall —

(A) stay the execution of such process; or

(B) discharge any fish seized pursuant to such process;

upon the receipt of a satisfactory bond or other security from any person claiming such property. Such bond or other security shall be conditioned upon such person (i) delivering such property to the appropriate court upon order thereof, without any impairment of its value, or (ii) paying the monetary value of such property pursuant to an order of such court.

16 U.S.C. § 1860(d). This provision of law was enacted for the benefit of "any person claiming" the seized property. The claimant can obtain the interim release of the vessel while the parties subsequently litigate fully the merits of the forfeiture proceedings. The claimant is thereby spared both the costs associated with custody as well as economic loss caused by detention of a vessel which otherwise could be gainfully utilized. There is no other way to obtain the interim release of a seized vessel subject to forfeiture. Compare, Rule E(5)(a), Fed. R.Civ.P. (Supplemental Rules for Certain Admiralty and Maritime Claims) (Rule E(5) inapplicable in cases of seizures for forfeiture under any law of the United States).

Under section 1860(d), once a vessel has been seized, a claimant who so desires may obtain release of the vessel from custody by posting a satisfactory bond or other security. The claimant's right to invoke section 1860(d) exists regardless of whether formal process has issued against the vessel. The sole condition imposed under the act is that claimant, in addition to posting security, must promise to obey a future order of the court directing claimant either to redeliver to the court the released vessel without any impairment of its value, or to pay its monetary value.

By requesting that the court exercise jurisdiction under the act to order the property released, and by specifically promising to abide by future orders of the court affecting that property, claimant expressly consents to the court's continuing in rem jurisdiction over the released property. Otherwise, release of the res would divest the court of jurisdiction to proceed. It is of no consequence that the vessel had not been formally arrested by judicial process before being released because that fact in no way inhibited claimant's statutory right to secure the vessel's release. Claimant is permitted by law, once the vessel is seized, to ask the...