Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/389/191/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 14:59:31+00:00

Document:
This case involves two libels arising out of the allegedly negligent sinking of vessels in navigable waterways of the United States. In United States v. Carill, Inc., the Government, after being notified of the sinking and abandonment of two barges, sought a decree that the parties responsible for the allegedly negligent sinking be declared responsible for removing the impediment to navigation which the wrecks constituted. In United States v. Wyandotte Transportation Co., the Government claimed that a barge had been negligently sunk and demanded that the wreck be removed. When this demand was rejected, the Government removed the sunken barge and cargo and brought suit in rem against the barge and its cargo and in personam against the barge owner and others to effect reimbursement for the substantial costs of removal. The District Court consolidated the actions and granted summary judgment in each instance against the United States, holding that the Government has no in personam rights against those responsible for having negligently sunk a vessel, but that it is limited to an in rem right against the vessel and its cargo. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case to the District Court for trial on the issue of negligence. It held that, under the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, as amended, the Government may assert in personam rights against those responsible for the negligent sinking of a vessel. Section 15 of the Act makes it unlawful to "carelessly sink, or permit or cause to be sunk a vessel in navigable waters." Petitioners contend that the Act's specific remedies, which include criminal penalties, are exclusive, and preclude the Government from obtaining the relief it has sought in the two libels. They note that, under the Act, failure to remove a vessel is considered an abandonment, and subjects a craft to removal by the Government, which may retain the proceeds of the sale of a wreck.
Held: The remedies and procedures for the enforcement of § 15 are not exclusive, and do not foreclose in personam relief against a party who negligently sinks a vessel in a navigable waterway. Pp. 389 U. S. 200-210.
(a) The Government is a principal beneficiary of the Act, which was obviously intended to prevent obstructions in the Nation's waterways. P. 389 U. S. 201.
(b) The general rule that the United States may sue to protect its interest is not necessarily inapplicable when the interest sought to be protected is expressed in a statute containing criminal penalties for its violation. Pp. 389 U. S. 201-202.
(c) The criminal penalties of the Act and the Government's in rem rights would not adequately reimburse the Government for removal expenses. P. 389 U. S. 202.
(d) The principles of United States v. Republic Steel Corp., 362 U. S. 482 (1960), where the Government was allowed injunctive relief to compel removal of an obstruction in a waterway even though such relief was nowhere specifically authorized in the Act, are applicable, by analogy, to the issues here. Pp. 389 U. S. 202-203.
(e) The availability to the Government of declaratory relief in the form of an order that a negligent party is responsible for rectifying the wrong done to maritime commerce by a violation of § 15 is inferable from the prohibition contained in that section. P. 389 U. S. 204.
(f) The exercise by the Government of the right of removal provided by the statute des not relieve negligent parties of the responsibility for making restitution for the removal. P. 389 U. S. 205.
(g) Petitioners err in believing that the abandonment portions of the Act confer an absolute right upon a shipowner to abandon his sunken craft with no in personam liability. Those provisions merely grant a right of removal to the Government, and do not negate the Government's rights to declaratory relief or to recover removal expenses. Pp. 389 U. S. 206-207.
(h) There is no support in the statute, in the legislative history, or in nonstatutory law, for the rule that a shipowner who has negligently sunk a vessel may abandon it and be insulated from all but in rem liability. Pp. 389 U. S. 208-209.
Two cases, consolidated by the trial court and raising related issues, are here involved. In United States v. Cargill, Inc., the Government asked that parties responsible for the allegedly negligent sinking of a vessel in an inland waterway be declared responsible for removing the impediment to navigation thus created. In United States v. Wyandotte Transportation Co., the United States had itself removed a sunken vessel; claiming that the vessel had been negligently sunk, it sought reimbursement for the costs of removal. The question now before us for decision is whether the relief requested in these cases is available to the United States.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana concluded that such relief is not available. After the cases were consolidated, that court granted summary judgment against the United States in each instance. The court decided that the Government has no in personam rights against those responsible for having negligently sunk a vessel. In its view, the United States is limited to an in rem right against the cargo of the negligently sunk vessel and against the vessel itself. United States v. Cargill, Inc., 1964 A.M.C. 1742.
States v. Cargill, Inc., 367 F.2d 971 (1966). Because of a conflict among the circuits, and because of the important question regarding interpretation of a statute of the United States, we granted certiorari. 386 U.S. 906 (1967). We affirm the judgment below.
The crucial facts of both cases occurred in March, 1961. The Cargill libel alleges that, at that time, a supertanker bound up the Mississippi for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, collided with two barges moored by a tug. The barges were owned by petitioner Cargo Carriers, Inc., and petitioner Jeffersonville Boat and Machine Co., respectively. The Government was notified immediately after the accident that the two barges had sunk. A few days later, it was served with notice that the barges were being abandoned. The United States refused, however, to accept abandonment or to assume responsibility for removing the wrecks. In December, 1962, it brought suit against the owners, managers, charterers, and insurers of the two barges, seeking a decree that the respondents were responsible for removing the sunken vessels. The Government charged that negligence in the equipping, manning, and mooring of the barges had caused the sinking. To this date, the barges involved in this case remain in the Mississippi.
The United States then moved to avert a catastrophe by locating and raising the barge and its deadly cargo. In October, 1962, the President proclaimed the presence of the barge to be a major disaster under the Disaster Relief Act, 64 Stat. 1109, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1855-1855g. Safety precautions on a grand scale were taken, and a team of experienced divers sought gingerly to raise Wyandotte's barge. These operations, costing the United States some $3,081,000, proved successful.
"It shall not be lawful . . . to voluntarily or carelessly sink, or permit or cause to be sunk, vessels or other craft in navigable channels. . . . And whenever a vessel, raft or other craft is wrecked and sunk in a navigable channel, accidentally or otherwise, it shall be the duty of the owner of such sunken craft to immediately mark it with a buoy or beacon during the day and a lighted lantern at night, and to maintain such marks until the sunken craft is removed or abandoned, and the neglect or failure of the said owner so to do shall be unlawful, and it shall be the duty of the owner of such sunken craft to commence the immediate removal of the same, and prosecute such removal diligently, and failure to do so shall be considered as an abandonment of such craft, and subject the same to removal by the United States as provided for in sections 411-416, 418, and 502 of this title."
"shall be subject to be broken up, removed, sold, or otherwise disposed of by the Secretary of the Army at his discretion, without liability for any damage to the owners of the same."
enforcement of § 15 were not intended to be exclusive. Applying the principles of our decision in Republic Steel, we conclude that other remedies, including those here sought, are available to the Government.
Article I, § 8, of the Constitution grants to Congress the power to regulate commerce. For the exercise of this power, the navigable waters of the United States are to be deemed the "public property of the nation, and subject to all the requisite legislation by Congress." Gillman v. Philadelphia, 3 Wall. 713, 70 U. S. 725 (1866). The Federal Government is charged with ensuring that navigable waterways, like any other routes of commerce over which it has assumed control, remain free of obstruction. Cf. In re Debs, 158 U. S. 564, 158 U. S. 586 (1895). The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, an assertion of the sovereign power of the United States, Sanitary District v. United States, 266 U. S. 405 (1925), was obviously intended to prevent obstructions in the Nation's waterways. Despite some difficulties with the wording of the Act, we have consistently found its coverage to be broad. See, e.g., Sanitary District v. United States, supra; United States v. Republic Steel Corp., 362 U. S. 482 (1960). [Footnote 13] And we have found that a principal beneficiary of the Act, if not the principal beneficiary, is the Government itself. United States v. Republic Steel Corp., supra, at 362 U. S. 492.
necessarily inapplicable when the particular governmental interest sought to be protected is expressed in a statute carrying criminal penalties for its violation. United States v. Republic Steel Corp., supra. Our decisions in cases involving civil actions of private parties based on the violation of a penal statute so indicate. Texas Pacific R. Co. v. Rigsby, 241 U. S. 33 (1916); J. I. Case Co. v. Borak, 377 U. S. 426 (1964). [Footnote 14] In those cases, we concluded that criminal liability was inadequate to ensure the full effectiveness of the statute which Congress had intended. Because the interest of the plaintiffs in those cases fell within the class that the statute was intended to protect, and because the harm that had occurred was of the type that the statute was intended to forestall, we held that civil actions were proper. That conclusion was in accordance with a general rule of the law of torts. See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 286. We see no reason to distinguish the Government, and to deprive the United States of the benefit of that rule.
The inadequacy of the criminal penalties explicitly provided by § 16 of the Rivers and Harbors Act is beyond dispute. That section contains only meager monetary penalties. In many cases, as here, the combination of these fines and the Government's in rem rights would not serve to reimburse the United States for removal expenses. It is true that § 16 also provides for prison terms, but this punishment is hardly a satisfactory remedy for the pecuniary injury which the negligent shipowner may inflict upon the sovereign. Cf. United States v. Acme Process Equipment Co., 385 U. S. 138 (1966).
"Congress has legislated and made its purpose clear; it has provided enough federal law in § 10 from which appropriate remedies may be fashioned even though they rest on inferences. Otherwise we impute to Congress a futility inconsistent with the great design of this legislation."
362 U.S. at 362 U. S. 492.
The Government may, in our view, seek an order that a negligent party is responsible for rectifying the wrong done to maritime commerce by a § 1a violation. Denial of such a remedy to the United States would permit the result, extraordinary in our jurisprudence, of a wrongdoer shifting responsibility for the consequences of his negligence onto his victim. It might in some cases permit the negligent party to benefit from commission of a criminal act. We do not believe that Congress intended to withhold from the Government a remedy that ensures the full effectiveness of the Act. We think we correctly divine the congressional intent in inferring the availability of that remedy from the prohibition of § 15.
commendable performance of Wyandotte's duty must be at Government expense. Indeed, in any case in which the Act provides a right of removal in the United States, the exercise of that right should not relieve negligent parties of the responsibility for removal. Otherwise, the Government would be subject to a financial penalty for the correct performance of its duty to prevent impediments in inland waterways. [Footnote 16] See United States v. Perma Paving Co., supra, at 758.
"failure to do so shall be considered as an abandonment of such craft, and subject the same to removal by the United States as provided for in sections [19 and 20],"
petitioners contend that such failure in no case has other consequences. But the duty imposed by and the remedy provided in the final clause of § 15 and §§ 19 and 20 are not prescribed only for owners of negligently sunk vessels.
Those provisions apply "whenever a vessel . . . is wrecked and sunk in a navigable channel, accidentally or otherwise. . . ." Unlike a negligent sinking, a nonnegligent sinking is not declared by the Act to be unlawful. It seems highly unlikely that Congress, having specified that only a negligent or intentional sinking is a crime, would then employ such indirect language to grant the culpable owner a personal civil immunity from the consequences of that crime.
assumed the existence of such a common law rule, see, e.g., United States v. Moran Towing & Transportation Co., 374 F.2d 656, 667 (C.A.4th Cir.1967); United States v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 319 F.2d 512, 518519 (C.A. 9th Cir.1963), the rule evaporates upon close analysis. [Footnote 22] We do not believe Congress intended the Rivers and Harbors Act to embody this illusory nonstatutory law.
There is some dispute as to whether the United States ever agreed to remove the owner's barge. The Court of Appeals was cognizant of this issue but concluded that its resolution of the cases made a decision on this point unnecessary. We agree. We therefore do not pass on the questions whether the United States asserted the right to remove Wyandotte's barge or whether the Government, once it has asserted such a right, is precluded from seeking declaratory relief.
Upon motion of the United States, the District Court ordered that the chlorine and its containers be sold and that the proceeds be paid into court pending final disposition of the litigation. The proceeds of this sale were $85,000. Petitioners do not dispute the right of the United States to this sum. See n 12, infra.
On petition for rehearing, the Court of Appeals affirmed the summary judgment entered in favor of Union Carbide Co., the owner of the chlorine, on the ground that there was no allegation or proof of negligence on its part. That decision is not now before us.
Of the expenses incurred by the United States, approximately $1,565,000 was for engineering costs; the remainder, some $1,516,000, was for public health and safety measures, including allegedly necessary precautions against a possible rupture of the chlorine containers during salvage operations. We do not, of course, pass on the questions whether all of these expenses were necessary to remove the barge, or whether the Government may recover all of them.
Thus, we intimate no view as to whether a negligently sunk vessel may be an "obstruction . . . to the navigable capacity of any of the waters of the United States," prohibited by § 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, 33 U.S.C. § 403. This was the ground upon which the Court of Appeals rested its decision. We do not assess any of the Court of Appeals' conclusions, nor do we decide whether petitioners may be subject to the criminal and other remedies of § 12 of the Act, 33 U.S.C. § 406, which applies to violations of § 10.
Nor, finally, do we decide whether nonstatutory public nuisance law may form a basis for the relief here sought by the Government. See, e.g., 37 U. S. Alexandria Canal Co., 12 Pet. 91, 37 U. S. 97 (1838); United States v. Hall, 63 F. 472, 474 (C.A. 1st Cir. 1894); The Ella,  P. 111 (1914); Comment, Substantive and Remedial Problems in Preventing Interferences with Navigation: The Republic Steel Case, 59 Col.L.Rev. 1065, 1067 (1959); Wisdom, Obstructions in Rivers, 119 Just. P. 846 (1955). We therefore do not pass either on the question whether such a nonstatutory right of the sovereign has ever existed in the United States, cf. Willamette Iron Bridge Co. v. Hatch, 125 U. S. 1, 125 U. S. 8 (1888); United States v. Republic Steel Corp., 362 U. S. 482, 362 U. S. 486 (1960); or on whether such a right, if it ever did exist, survived the series of enactments beginning with the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1890, 26 Stat. 426, 454, in which Congress asserted the general interest of the United States in the removal of sunken vessels obstructing navigable waters. Cf. In re Debs, 158 U. S. 564 (1895).
It bears emphasis that we are here concerned with the careless or negligent sinking of a vessel, which is specifically declared not to be lawful by the first above-quoted clause of § 15. Negligence is the sole theory of recovery in the Government's libels. Questions involving a non-negligent sinking, which is not forbidden by § 15, are not now before us, and we do not mean to indicate what relief, if any, may be available to the Government in that situation.
The determination of the applicability of § 20 is left by that section to "the opinion of the Secretary of the Army, or any agent of the United States to whom the Secretary may delegate proper authority." Once the determination is made, the Secretary or his agent may "take immediate possession" of a sunken vessel "so far as to remove or to destroy it and to clear immediately" the obstructed waterway. See n 20, infra.
"a fine not exceeding $2,500 nor less than $500, or by imprisonment (in the case of a natural person) for not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. . . ."
As noted, the United States sought declaratory relief in the Cargill action.
The Government notes, in regard to petitioners' contention that these remedies are exclusive, that they apply only to the owner of a vessel. The Government argues that the position of those allegedly negligent petitioners who are not owners is substantially weaker. But see United States v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 319 F.2d 512, 521 (C.A. 9th Cir.1963). We note that the prohibition of § 15 against the negligent sinking of a vessel and the criminal penalties of § 16 are not limited to owners. Our disposition of these cases makes it unnecessary for us to pass on the Government's contention.
Petitioners concede the in rem right of the United States against a negligently sunk vessel and its cargo, see Brief for Petitioners, p. 12, despite the fact that the right of the Government to proceed against cargo is by no means clearly granted by the statute. See § 19, 33 U.S.C. § 414; United States v. Cargo Salvage Corp., 228 F.Supp. 145 (D.C.S.D.N.Y.1964). See also § 16, 33 U.S.C. § 412.
In this conclusion we have been supported by similarly broad readings of similar statutes predating this one. See, e.g., United States v. Rio Grande Irrigation Co., 174 U. S. 690 (1899).
See North Bloomfield Gravel Min. Co. v. United States, 88 F. 664, 678-679 (C.A. 9th Cir. 1898). See also Dann v. Studebaker-Packard Corp., 288 F.2d 201, 208-209 (C.A. 6th Cir.1961); Reitmeister v. Reitmeister, 162 F.2d 691, 694 (C.A.2d Cir.1947).
"if . . . injunctive relief . . . was not available, the free navigability of the channel would be seriously impaired, and Republic Steel Corp., by repeatedly paying the fine imposed [by § 12], would, in effect, be operating under a license."
See Brief for Petitioners, p. 29; United States v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 319 F.2d 512, 518 (C.A. 9th Cir.1963). This ground of distinction will not do, for at least three reasons. First, the criminal provisions of § 12 include not only a fine, but a prison term. See United States v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 319 F.2d 512, 523 (C.A. 9th Cir.1963) (dissenting opinion). Second, if fines were in practice the only deterrent in § 12 and § 16, it might well be worthwhile to risk fines, rather than take necessary safety measures for tows. Third, the proposed ground of distinction concentrates upon the injunction in Republic Steel against future violations of the Act; it does not explain the mandatory injunction in that case to compel removal of the obstruction that had already been created at the time of the Government's suit.
Indeed, the argument for exclusivity was stronger in Republic Steel than it is here. In that case, we decided that injunctive relief was a proper enforcement measure against a violation of the very section to which § 12 (but not the statutory provision of injunctive process) applies.
Wyandotte, noting that Government funds spent in removal operations were provided under the Disaster Relief Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1855-1855g, argues that nothing in that Act authorizes the United States to recover disaster relief expenditures from private parties. We agree, but the argument misses the point. We believe the United States may recover its expenses under the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. We see nothing in the Disaster Relief Act to the contrary.
We do not, of course, pass on the applicability of the Limitation Act, before or after passage of the Rivers and Harbors Act, to the facts of the case now before us. We only note that the principle for which petitioners are contending is very much like the principle of limitation of liability, known to the statutory maritime law of the United States almost 50 years prior to passage of the Rivers and Harbors Act.
"a person who . . . negligently permits a vessel to sink in navigable waters of the United States . . . may . . . be compelled to remove the wreck as a public nuisance or to pay for its removal."
33 CFR § 209.410. The origins of this regulation go back to 1901. Letter from William Cary Sanger, Acting Secretary of War, to William L. Hughes, July 31, 1901. See United States v. Republic Steel Corp., 362 U. S. 482, 362 U. S. 490, n. 5 (1960).
This rule is not unfair. See 41 Tulane L.Rev. 459, 464, n. 29 (1967). The shipowner should know the value of his vessel and cargo. If he believes that value is greater than the cost of removal, he may, within 30 days after the obstruction is created, raise the vessel himself. See § 19, 33 U.S.C. § 414.
"[t]hat the expense of removing any such obstruction as aforesaid shall be a charge against such craft and cargo, and if the owners thereof fail or refuse to reimburse the United States for such expense within thirty days after notification, then the officer or agent aforesaid may sell the craft or cargo, or any part thereof that may not have been destroyed in removal, and the proceeds of such sale shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States."
Petitioners rely heavily on the phrase "shall be a charge against such craft and cargo." But that phrase does not lead to the conclusion that the Government possesses no other right to recover. The phrase merely describes the lien interest of the United States. See United States v. Moran Towing & Transportation Co., 374 F.2d 656, 671 (C.A.4th Cir.1967) (dissenting opinion). Such a provision is necessary in a § 20 case because, under the terms of that section, the owner is not given a statutory period in which to decide whether the value of his vessel and cargo exceeds the cost of removal and to effectuate removal himself.
Petitioners do not appear to claim that the legislative history of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 clearly indicates the intent of Congress to create or codify this rule. To the extent that any intent appears in the legislative history of the 1899 Act, it is the intent not to alter preexisting statutory law. Thus, the House conferees said of the statute that it was a "codification of existing laws pertaining to rivers and harbors, though containing no essential changes in the existing law." 32 Cong.Rec. 2923 (1899); see United States v. Republic Steel Corp., 362 U.S. at 362 U. S. 486. The legislative history of prior statutes is scant. And the prior Acts themselves lend no support to petitioners. See Rivers and Harbors Act of 1880, 21 Stat. 180; Rivers and Harbors Act of 1882, 22 Stat. 191; Rivers and Harbors Act of 1890, 26 Stat. 426.
"it would be adding to the calamity to subject the party to an indictment . . . against which he could not guard, or which he could not prevent."
"[i]t is well settled that the owner of a vessel which has been sunk in navigable waters, and abandoned by him is under no obligation to remove the vessel. . . ."
But the only case cited for this "well-settled" rule is King v. Watts.
"There seem to be good reasons for this rule. When a vessel is lost by the act of God, or by accident, the owner suffers oftentimes great damage, and when she becomes a total loss, it seems to be a great hardship to add to his misfortune the duty of removing the wreck. It would discourage commerce to hold him to so severe a duty; for who would engage in trade if, when he has lost his vessel, he might be forced to incur an expense of more than her original cost in removing the wreck from some difficult position? If compelled by the accident to abandon his property, the duty of removal should rather fall on the public, who are interested in the navigation, than on him."
Cases cited for petitioners that do not rely on Winpenny either do not support petitioners' claim of a nonstatutory rule, see, e.g., In re Highland Nav. Corp., 24 F.2d 582 (D.C.S.D.N.Y.1927), affirmed, 29 F.2d 37 (C.A.2d Cir.1928); Zubik v. United States, 190 F.2d 278 (C.A.3d Cir.1951); United States v. Bridgeport Towing Line, Inc., 15 F.2d 240 (D.C.D.Conn.1926), or support it only with unsupported dicta of their own, see, e.g., Barraclough v. Brown,  A.C. 615 (construing the Aire and Calder Navigation Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. . , c. 32)).
left that question to be answered in light of a full development of the facts, and in accordance with normal standards of equity.
In reaching these conclusions, I have not been unmindful of the view stated by me in dictum in my dissenting opinion in United States v. Republic Steel Corp., 362 U. S. 482, 362 U. S. 493, to the effect that the courts are precluded from supplying relief not expressly found in the Rivers and Harbors Act. Insofar as that dictum might be taken to encompass the present case, where, contrary to my view in Republic Steel, I do believe that the relief afforded by this Court is fairly to be implied from the statute, candor would compel me to say that the dictum was ill-founded.
On these premises, I join the opinion of the Court.

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