Ventura Packers, Inc. v. F/V Jeanine Kathleen
| Decision Date | 11 September 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 00-56448.,00-56448. |
| Citation | 305 F.3d 913 |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
| Parties | VENTURA PACKERS, INC., a California corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. F/V JEANINE KATHLEEN, Official No. 972086, her tackle, furniture & apparel in rem; F/V Rose Lee, Official No. 942678, her tackle, furniture & apparel in rem; F/V Talia, Official No. 973296, her tackle, furniture & apparel in rem, Defendants, and Roger L. Ingman; Jody K. Ingman; Rose Lee LLC; Dennis H. Eames; Andrea J. Eames, Claimants-Appellees. |
Denise A. Brogna, Lascher & Lascher, Ventura, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.
Carolyn J. Shields, Bailey & Partners, Santa Monica, CA, for the claimants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; Audrey B. Collins, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-98-09916-ABC.
Before TROTT, THOMAS, and WARDLAW, Circuit Judges.
Ventura Packers, Inc. ("Ventura Packers") sued in rem three fishing vessels, the F/V Jeanine Kathleen, the F/V Rose Lee, and the F/V Talia ("the Ships"), to enforce a necessaries lien. On the Ships' motion for summary judgment, the district court dismissed the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
Ventura Packers appealed. We have jurisdiction over its timely appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We hold that the Federal Maritime Lien Act, 46 U.S.C. § 31342, establishes statutory elements, which if met, invoke the admiralty jurisdiction of the federal courts. As Ventura Packers established a triable issue of fact regarding whether it met these jurisdictional elements, we reverse the district court's dismissal of its complaint and remand the case for additional proceedings.
In an effort to create economies of scale unavailable to individual anglers, several commercial fishermen banded together to form the Independent Fishermen's Cooperative ("IFC"), incorporated in Alaska by Gregory Kirsch ("Kirsch"). IFC's founding members included Dennis Eames, owner of the F/V Talia, Roger Ingman, co-owner with his wife Jody Ingman of the F/V Jeanine Kathleen, and Richard and Mitchell Eide, owners and masters, at that time, of the F/V Rose Lee, which is now owned by Rose Lee LLC (collectively "the Owners"). IFC's members envisioned making boatloads of money by assuming the risks traditionally borne by the fishing industry's middlemen. Instead of immediately selling the catch at the dock to local fish buyers, IFC decided it would ice, process, package, and transport the fish itself and then sell it for a higher price further down the stream of commerce.
IFC's members opted to participate in the 1996-97 Ventura/ Santa Barbara squid fishing season. As relatively new fishermen to these seas, IFC's members lacked long-term relationships with and, consequently, priority access to local fish unloading facilities. Speed in unloading the catch and priority dock access are essential because if squid is not brought to port, processed, and frozen within twenty-four hours, the squid flesh begins to spoil. Priority docking and unloading services also return a boat to the sea quickly, thereby maximizing its time devoted to harvesting squid and minimizing its time laid up in port. To obtain priority service, IFC, through Kirsch, negotiated with Ventura Packers to unload and document its members' catch. For the 1996-97 season, IFC agreed to pay Ventura Packers $50/ton to unload and pack the squid; $20/ton "to administer [IFC's] business in Ventura with government entities, transportation companies, processors, and cold storages"; and $10/ton for priority access to Ventura Packers' unloading facilities.
Ventura Packers provided the Ships with priority service on 188 different occasions during the 1996-97 season. Each time a Ship was unloaded, Ventura Packers documented the catch using a California Department of Fish and Game landing receipt ("California fish ticket"), many of which bear the signature of the Ship's owner or master. The sea yielded a bountiful 1996-97 squid season. Ventura Packers unloaded a total of 5,892 tons of squid from the Ships: 2,437 tons from the Rose Lee; 1,554 tons from the Talia; and 1,901 tons from the Jeanine Kathleen. At a sales price of $250/ton, this squid tonnage amounted to nearly $1,473,000 for the Ships. Despite the profitable fishing season, however, the Ships allegedly failed to settle their respective accounts with Ventura Packers. Ventura Packers claims that at season's end, the Jeanine Kathleen owed $22,000; the Talia owed $43,000; and the Rose Lee was in the red a whopping $105,000. The Ships, of course, dispute their liability as well as the accuracy of these amounts.
To recover these allegedly unpaid amounts, Ventura Packers filed suit in state court against IFC. While the state suit was pending, Ventura Packers filed this in rem admiralty action against the Ships pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(h) and Rule C of the Supplemental Rules for Certain Admiralty and Maritime Claims. Ventura Packers alleged a necessaries lien under § 31342 and requested arrest of the Ships. The Owners intervened and submitted undertakings, a type of maritime bond, in lieu of having the Ships arrested. The Owners then moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The district court initially denied the Owners' motion to dismiss.
The Owners answered, and discovery proceeded. The parties cross-moved for summary judgment. The Owners again argued that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate the action. Ventura Packers responded that admiralty jurisdiction was proper under 46 U.S.C. § 31342 and the common law. The district court granted the Owners' motion and dismissed the case.
Ventura Packers appeals.
We review the grant of summary judgment de novo. Steen v. John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co., 106 F.3d 904, 910(9th Cir.1997). We must determine, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, whether there are any genuine issues of material fact and whether the district court correctly applied the relevant law. Robi v. Reed, 173 F.3d 736, 739 (9th Cir.1999). We review de novo the district court's determination that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction, H2O Houseboat Vacations Inc. v. Hernandez, 103 F.3d 914, 916 (9th Cir. 1996), and the district court's interpretation of 46 U.S.C. § 31342, Port of Portland v. The M/V Paralla, 892 F.2d 825, 827 (9th Cir.1989).
"The precise scope of admiralty jurisdiction is not a matter of obvious principle or of very accurate history." The Blackheath, 195 U.S. 361, 365, 25 S.Ct. 46, 49 L.Ed. 236 (1904). Though not confined to vessels, admiralty naturally centers around them, as the great agents of maritime affairs. Here, the district court held it lacked admiralty jurisdiction because the contract between Ventura Packers and IFC was not a wholly maritime contract and its maritime portion could not be severed from its non-maritime portion without prejudice to the Ships. We agree with the district court that the contract is not wholly maritime and is not severable. The district court, however, did not consider whether Congress provided an independent statutory basis for admiralty jurisdiction by enacting 46 U.S.C. § 31342.
The relevant section of the Maritime Lien Act, 46 U.S.C. § 31342,2 provides:
(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a person providing necessaries to a vessel on the order of the owner or a person authorized by the owner —
(1) has a maritime lien on the vessel;
(2) may bring a civil action in rem to enforce the lien; and
(3) is not required to allege or prove in the action that credit was given to the vessel.
(b) This section does not apply to a public vessel.
Ventura Packers argues that § 31342 provides particular elements, which if met, allow the federal district court to exercise its admiralty jurisdiction. The Ships respond that admiralty jurisdiction is proper only upon meeting the common law requirement that a maritime contract underlie the necessaries lien. We agree with Ventura Packers. If a plaintiff demonstrates that he (1) provided necessaries (2) to a vessel (3) on the order of the owner or a person authorized by the owner, then he may bring a civil action in rem to a federal district court sitting in admiralty.
A federal court's authority to hear cases in admiralty flows initially from the Constitution, which extends federal judicial power "to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction." U.S. Const. art. III, § 2. Congress, in turn, embodied that power in a statute giving federal district courts "original jurisdiction ... of ... [a]ny civil case of admiralty or maritime jurisdiction." 28 U.S.C. § 1333(1).
As the Constitution fixed only the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, however, Congress remains free to mold the scope of the federal courts' admiralty jurisdiction as it pleases, and it does so from time to time. Detroit Trust Co. v. The Thomas Barlum, 293 U.S. 21, 48, 55 S.Ct. 31, 79 L.Ed. 176 (1934) (). The Judiciary Act of 1789, for example, conferred upon the federal district courts exclusive jurisdiction over all cases arising from seizures made on navigable waters under the laws of impost, navigation, or trade of the United States. See 1 Erastus C. Benedict, Benedict on Admiralty § 109, at 7-21 (2002). Since then, Congress has periodically enacted specific legislation extending the conditions under which the federal courts may exercise their admiralty jurisdiction. For example, in 1948, Congress extended...
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