Van Nood v. Federal Barge Lines, Inc.
| Decision Date | 29 March 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 8183.,8183. |
| Citation | 282 F. Supp. 890 |
| Parties | Hendrik VAN NOOD v. FEDERAL BARGE LINES, INC., Midland Enterprises, Inc. and BARGE OR-728. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
Robert B. Deane, Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Burke, Toler & Hopkins, New Orleans, La., for plaintiff.
Charles Kohlmeyer, Jr., John William Futrell, Lemle & Kelleher, New Orleans, La., for defendant.
Walter Carroll, Jr., Terriberry, Rault, Carroll, Yancey & Farrell, New Orleans, La., for third-party defendant.
This is an action in admiralty by Hendrik Van Nood to recover damages sustained by the Motor Vessel Clara on May 4, 1965 when she was struck by a drifting barge (Barge OR-728). This action is brought against the present owner of the barge, Midland Enterprises, Inc. and her charterer, Federal Barge Lines, Inc. The defendants impleaded National Shipping Corporation, lessee of the barge.
Trial was held on January 15, 1968. After considering the pleadings, evidence and arguments of counsel, the court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.
Plaintiff, Hendrik Van Nood, is, and at all times material hereto, was the owner, operator and master of the Dutch Motor Vessel Clara, a small coastal trader 224 feet in length with a 31 foot beam. On the night of May 4, 1965, she was moored in the Mississippi River at the Congress Street Wharf, New Orleans, with her starboard side to the wharf and her bow upstream.
On May 4, 1965, Barge OR-728 was owned by the Ohio River Company. Defendant Federal Barge Lines, Inc. was the bareboat charterer and owner pro hac vice of the barge.
Defendant Midland Enterprises, Inc. is the present owner of Barge OR-728, having acquired her on November 2, 1965,1 and was her owner at the time this libel was filed (May 3, 1966).
At all times pertinent hereto, National Shipping Corporation, third party defendant, was the owner and operator of the Pakistani Steamship Karanphuli, which, on May 4, 1965, was moored at the Congress Street Wharf, New Orleans, her starboard side to the wharf and her bow upstream. The M/V Clara was moored some 20 to 30 feet astern of the Karanphuli.
When anyone ordered a barge from Federal, usual procedure was for Federal to have Joe Domino send a tug to its fleet landing and have the barge towed to the designated location. Once a barge was taken from its fleet landing Federal had no knowledge of how the barge was delivered or moored and its only concern was to receive barge rental and return of the barge at some later date.2
At the request of the Karanphuli or her charterers, Federal arranged to have the unmanned inland steel cargo Barge OR-728 taken from its fleet at the foot of Carrollton Avenue and delivered to the Karanphuli to be used in discharging the latter. The barge was delivered by the Tug G. F. McCall and according to the log of the Karanphuli for May 4, 1965, Barge OR-728 was delivered alongside her No. 4 hatch at 10:30 AM that day.
Shortly after 8:00 PM on the evening of May 4, 1965, the outboard (port) side of the M/V Clara was damaged as a result of a collision with Barge OR-728 which had, in some unexplained manner, drifted free from her moorings alongside the Karanphuli.
The chief officer of the Clara made the barge fast alongside that vessel and inspected the damage. Thereafter an unknown tug took possession of Barge OR-728 and moved her back up alongside the Karanphuli. Captain Hendrik Van Nood, master of the Clara, was not aboard the Clara at the time of the collision. However, he arrived shortly thereafter, observed the barge alongside the Clara, saw the tug take her back to the Karanphuli, and observed damage to the port side of the Clara's hull resulting from the collision.
The Clara departed New Orleans the following day and upon her return on May 20, 1965, a staff surveyor of the Salvage Association, London, examined her damaged hull, after which Captain Van Nood obtained bids from two ship repair yards for repairing the damage. Gulf-Tampa Drydock Company submitted the low bid ($3,827). London Salvage Surveyor Derrick Wilkinson testified that the low bid was fair and reasonable and that additional expenses of $319, incurred and estimated for surveys and supervision, were fair and reasonable. The damage had not been repaired as of the date of trial.
This Court has jurisdiction over this cause pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1333(1) and venue in the Eastern District of Louisiana is proper.
A vessel properly moored to a pier or to the shore, like a vessel properly anchored, has the highest degree of privilege and when a drifting (or moving) barge (or vessel) strikes such moored vessel (or a fixed object) there is a presumption that the collision occurred through the negligence of the drifting (or moving) vessel and the burden is on the latter to exonerate herself from fault.3 Absent contradictory evidence the presumption of negligence stands.4
If the cause of the barge's going adrift is unknown, she is liable for any damage which she may have caused.5
At the time of the collision Barge OR-728 was owned by the Ohio River Company, which is not a party to this suit. Defendant Midland Enterprises, Inc., purchased the Barge OR-728 on November 2, 1965, some five months after the collision in question. At the time of the collision no relationship existed between Midland and Barge OR-728, therefore no personal liability may be imposed upon Midland for the barge's actions. Accordingly, dismissal of the action against Midland Enterprises, Inc. is warranted.
Federal Barge Lines, as bareboat charterer of Barge OR-728, was her owner pro hac vice, responsible for her, capable of permitting or causing liens to be created against her, and liable to third parties to the same extent that her owner would be.6
When the OR-728 was delivered to Karanphuli, Federal relinquished the care, custody and control of the barge to the master and officers of the Karanphuli and, through them, National Shipping Corporation, third-party defendant and owner of the Karanphuli, is liable for all damage occasioned as a result of the barge coming adrift while in third-party defendant's custody.7
It is incumbent upon those charged with the duty of keeping a vessel under control to show that she did not come into damaging contact with a moored vessel through their negligence.8
Pursuant to Admiralty Rule 56 which was in effect at the time this libel was filed, and pursuant to Rule 14(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure currently in effect and applicable to Admiralty causes of action, a defendant may bring in a third-party defendant who may be wholly or partly liable, either to the plaintiff or to the third-party plaintiff, and if the third-party plaintiff demands judgment against the third-party defendant in favor of plaintiff, "the action shall proceed as if the plaintiff had commenced it against the third-party defendant as well as the third-party plaintiff." In the instant cause of action the third-party complaint against the Karanphuli prayed that all persons having or claiming any interest in her appear and answer under oath the third-party petition and the original libel. Regardless of whether Admiralty Rule 56 or Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 14(c) applies, I find that there is sufficient compliance with Rule 14(c) to support a judgment in favor of plaintiff directly against third-party defendant. 9
Accordingly, let judgment in amount of $4,146 together with interest as of May 4, 1965, and all costs be entered in favor of Hendrik Van Nood and against third-party defendant National Shipping Corporation, according to the above findings of fact and conclusions of law.
1 Defendant's answers to interrogatories, Answer 1.
2 Testimony of Walter Kaufman.
3 The Granite State, 3 Wall (70 U.S.) 310, 18 L.Ed. 179 (1866); The Louisiana, 3 Wall (70 U.S.) 164, 18 L.Ed. 85 (1865); Diamond Coal & Coke Co. v. Hazlewood Co., 297 F. 242 (CA 3-1924); Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans v. Joe L. Hill, 118 F.Supp. 951 (ED La.-1954); aff'd 218 F.2d 771 (CA 5-1955); Brown & Root Marine Operators, Inc. v. Zapata Off-Shore Co., 377 F.2d 724 (CA 5-1967).
4 Neither of the defendants or the third-party defendant produced an...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Brittingham v. Tugboat Underwriting Syndicate
...S.Ct. 684, 45 L.Ed. 954; Reed v. Steamship Yaka, 373 U.S. 410, 412, 83 S.Ct. 1349, 1351, 10 L.Ed.2d 448, 451; Van Nood v. Federal Barge Lines, Inc. (E.D.La.), 282 F.Supp. 890, 892; The Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse (D.C.), 106 F. 963, 969-970; United States v. S. S. Lucie Schulte (2nd Cir.), 34......
-
Lancaster v. Ohio River Co.
...Chem. 301, 390 F.Supp. 1388, 1394-95 (M.D.La.1975), rev'd on other grounds, 546 F.2d 1125 (5 Cir. 1977), Van Nood v. Federal Barge Lines, Inc., 282 F.Supp. 890, 893 (E.D.La.1968); Burns Bros. v. Long Island R. Co., 176 F.2d 406, 409 (2d Cir. 1949); Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. v. Vang, 73 F......
-
Offshore Tel. Co. v. M/V WATERBUCK, M/V STATE POINT
...from any lien caused by its own fault. The Barnstable, 181 U.S. 464, 21 S.Ct. 684, 45 L.Ed. 954 (1901); Van Nood v. Federal Barge Lines, Inc., 282 F.Supp. 890, 892 (E.D.La.1968). The failure of the Master of the M/V WATERBUCK to radio the pusher of the Mobil rig in Vermilion Block 131 befor......