Case Name: Jacob DICK, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellant
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1982-02-04
Citations: 671 F.2d 724
Docket Number: Cal. No. 69, Docket 81-6076
Parties: Jacob DICK, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellant.
Judges: Before LUMBARD, MANSFIELD and VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 671
Pages: 724–729

Head Matter:
Jacob DICK, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellant.
Cal. No. 69, Docket 81-6076.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Argued Sept. 10, 1981.
Decided Feb. 4, 1982.
Michael Kimmel, Dept, of Justice, Washington, D. C. (Thomas S. Martin, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D. C., and Edward R. Korman, U. S. Atty., Brooklyn, N. Y. on the Brief), for defendant-appellant.
Harvey Goldstein, New York City (Fuchs-berg & Fuehsberg, New York City, on the Brief), for plaintiff-appellee.
Before LUMBARD, MANSFIELD and VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judge:
In P. Dougherty Co. v. United States, 207 F.2d 626, 633-37 (3rd Cir. 1953), cert. denied, 347 U.S. 912, 74 S.Ct. 476, 98 L.Ed. 1068 (1954), the Third Circuit held that the United States was not liable for damages resulting from the negligence of the Coast Guard during a volunteer rescue operation. Although the Good Samaritan aspect of this holding has a certain appeal, the decision has not been widely followed. See, eg., United States v. Sandra & Dennis Fishing Corp., 372 F.2d 189, 197 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 836, 88 S.Ct. 48, 19 L.Ed.2d 98 (1967). In the instant case, which involves a claim for personal injuries resulting in part from the negligent rescue efforts of a volunteer Coast Guard Auxiliary boat, the Government argues only that it should be able to limit its liability to the value of the salving vessel pursuant to 46 U.S.C. § 789 and 183. Finding merit in this argument, we reverse that portion of the judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Sifton, J., which denied the Government's petition for limitation.
On July 18, 1971, the pleasure craft Escape II drifted onto a shoal on the northern side of the State Boat Channel off Oyster Bay, Long Island while trying to assist a smaller runabout that was having engine trouble and had caught fire. Plaintiff was a passenger on the Escape.
Two vessels came in response to the Escape's call for help. One was a Nassau County police boat. The other was a Coast Guard Auxiliary vessel, the Galaxy, a 28-foot cabin cruiser owned and operated by one Jerry Bieder. A volunteer member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, Bieder had previously agreed to make his boat available to the Coast Guard for safety patrol. On the afternoon of July 18, Bieder received a radio message from the Short Beach Coast Guard Station that a boat was on fire. When Bieder arrived, he found that the Nassau County police boat was taking care of the burning runabout, but that the Escape was in need of assistance.
Bieder towed the Escape back into the channel, but, in the process, negligently towed it into a channel marker. In the collision, plaintiff fell to the deck and injured his back. He sued to recover damages resulting from that injury.
The district court found that Bieder was 65% at fault in towing the Escape into the channel marker and that plaintiff was 35% at fault in failing to brace himself. The court found that plaintiff suffered total damages of $58,201.45, which it reduced by 35%. An amended final judgment in the amount of $37,830.94 was entered against the United States alone. The district court denied the petition of the United States to limit its liability to the value of the Galaxy, which was approximately $8,000 at the time of the accident.
The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is a volunteer organization which assists the Coast Guard in educating and protecting the boating public. 14 U.S.C. § 821, 822. Auxiliary members who own boats may place them at the disposal of the Coast Guard for its use in carrying out these functions, 14 U.S.C. § 826, and that is what occurred in this case. Any such boat, while assigned to authorized Coast Guard duty, is deemed to be a public vessel of the United States, and, in connection with the processing of admiralty damage claims against the United States, 14 U.S.C. § 646, is deemed to be a vessel of the Coast Guard, 14 U.S.C. § 827. The Government undertakes to pay the necessary expenses of operation while the boat is in its service, including fuel, oil, power, water, supplies, provisions, replacement or repair of equipment, and damage to the boat. 14 U.S.C. § 830.
Pertinent provisions of the Public Vessels Act, 46 U.S.C. § 781-790, and the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U.S.C. § 741-752, make the United States solely liable for the negligent operation of a boat while it is being operated as a public vessel. Carter v. American Export Isbrandtsen Lines, Inc., 411 F.2d 1185 (2d Cir. 1969). However, the United States is entitled to all limitations of liability accorded by law to the "owners, charterers, operators or agents of vessels", 46 U.S.C. § 789, which, in the case of an owner, limits his exposure to the value of his interest in the vessel and its freight then pending, 46 U.S.C. § 183. For limitation of liability purposes, we believe that the United States should be treated as the owner pro hac vice of the public vessel whose rescue operations led to this litigation.
Through successive enactments beginning with the Shipping Act of 1916, Pub. L.No. 64-260, 39 Stat. 728 (current version at 46 U.S.C. § 801-842), Congress has eased progressively the restrictions against private recovery for governmental maritime torts. United States v. United Continental Tuna Corp., 425 U.S. 164, 170-81, 96 S.Ct. 1319, 1323-29, 47 L.Ed.2d 653 (1976). Congress has clearly manifested its intent, however, that all maritime tort claims against the Government be'sued in admiralty rather than under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Id. at 176 n.14, 96 S.Ct. at 1326 n.14; Roberts v. United States, 498 F.2d 520, 525-26 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1070, 95 S.Ct. 656, 42 L.Ed.2d 665 (1974). This means that the limitation of liability provisions of the Suits in Admiralty Act and the Public Vessels Act, if otherwise applicable to the facts of a particular case, set the outside limits of a plaintiff's recovery.
The Secretaries of the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, and the Treasury are given authority in various amounts to settle claims for damage caused by vessels in their respective services. 10 U.S.C. § 9802, 4802, 7623; 14 U.S.C. § 646. This settlement authority is intended to be "predicated strictly on legal liability" and is "applicable only in a case where court action could be brought and maintained." See Letter from John H. Chaffee, Secretary of the Navy, to Hon. Carl Albert, Speaker of the House of Representatives (May 11, 1971), reprinted in [1972] U.S.Code Cong. & Ad. News 3138, 3140.
In determining the "legal liability" of the Government for a Coast Guard Auxiliary vessel assigned to Coast Guard duty, the Secretary of the Treasury must treat the vessel as a "public vessel of the United States" and a "vessel of the Coast Guard". 14 U.S.C. § 827. It seems unlikely that Congress intended that such a public vessel be considered a Coast Guard vessel for settlement purposes but a privately owned vessel in the event of litigation. The merger of the personality of a public vessel with that of the sovereign, The Western Maid, 257 U.S. 419, 433, 42 S.Ct. 159, 161, 66 L.Ed. 299 (1922), should not hinge upon whether the claim against the sovereign is settled or tried.
The Coast Guard Auxiliary was created by the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Reserve Act of 1941, Pub.L.No. 77-8, 55 Stat. 9 (current version at 14 U.S.C. § 751-832). On January 28, 1941, Rear Admiral Waesche, Commandant of the Coast Guard, testified before the House of Representatives' Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries in support of the 1941 bill. Speaking of section 6 of the proposed bill, now in substance 14 U.S.C. § 826, Admiral Waesche said that it would "permit us to bring into the Coast Guard, motor boats and yachts with their owners and crews and to use the vessel intact for helping us to carry out the duties of the Service." He testified further, "Under this law, or this bill, if it becomes a law, we will bring into active service in the Coast Guard various boats where we need boat equipment, and will bring into the service, with a motor boat, its crew." Establishment, Administration, and Maintenance of a Coast Guard Auxiliary and a Coast Guard Reserve: Hearings on H.R. 562 Before the House Comm, on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 10 (1941).
The report of the Senate Committee on Commerce which recommended passage of the 1941 bill said of section 7, now 14 U.S.C. § 827, that any Auxiliary member's boat while on Coast Guard assignment will be "a Coast Guard vessel within the meaning of the act relating to collisions of Coast Guard vessels.. . " S.Rep.No. 31, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 4. We think it unlikely that Congress intended that the United States assume unlimited liability for damages caused by these "Coast Guard vessels" when its liability for damages caused by regular "Coast Guard vessels" is limited. See United States v. Sandra & Dennis Fishing Corp., supra, 372 F.2d at 198-99.
The term "owner", as used in limitation of liability statutes, is an "untechnical word" which should be interpreted in a "liberal way". Flink v. Paladini, 279 U.S. 59, 63, 49 S.Ct. 255, 256, 73 L.Ed. 613 (1929). As a general rule, one who is subjected to a shipowner's liability because of his exercise of dominion over a vessel should be able to limit his liability to that of an owner. Admiral Towing Co. v. Woolen, 290 F.2d 641, 644-46 (9th Cir. 1961); In re Petition of United States, 259 F.2d 608, 610 (3d Cir. 1958); Complaint of B. F. T. No. Two Corp., 433 F.Supp. 854, 871-73 (E.D.Pa.1977); The Milwaukee, 48 F.2d 842, 842 (E.D.Wis.1931). When Congress passed the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Reserve Act, it surely was aware that the Public Vessels Act was "[a]n Act authorizing suits against the United States in admiralty for damage caused by and salvage service rendered to public vessels belonging to the United States." Pub. L.No. 68-546, § 1, 43 Stat. 1112 (1925). The Public Vessels Act authorized admiralty libels in personam to be brought against the United States "for damages caused by a public vessel of the United States", id., at the same time "conferring on the United States all exemptions and limitations of liability accorded by law to owners of private vessels." Canadian Aviator Ltd. v. United States, 324 U.S. 215, 222, 65 S.Ct. 639, 643, 89 L.Ed. 901 (1945). Viewing the language of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Reserve Act in the light of this historical background, we conclude that, for liability purposes, Congress intended the United States to be treated as owner pro hac vice of Coast Guard Auxiliary boats, which become "public vessels" when assigned to Government service. Accordingly, we reverse that portion of the amended judgment dated January 29,1981, which dismissed the petition of the United States to limit its liability to the value of the Coast Guard Auxiliary boat Galaxy and remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.