Opinion ID: 2960624
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Gauging Report

Text: Next, Spain suggests that decisionmakers in ABS’s Houston headquarters acted recklessly in re-issuing the Prestige’s classification certificate on May 24, 2001, after the completion of the Fifth Special Survey but prior to receiving the gauging report from that survey. As discussed above, gauging is the ultrasonic measurement of the thickness of the steel in a vessel’s structure; Spain asserts that having the report explaining the findings of the gauging process “is necessary to evaluate the condition of the vessel’s steel,” Appellant’s Br. 20. If ABS Houston had waited until its staff had the gauging report in hand, Spain asserts, the staff would have noticed the putatively glaring deficiencies in that report, been alerted to the underlying deficiencies in the gauging itself, and declined to re-issue the class certificate. It is undisputed, however, that on May 23, 2001, prior to re-issuing the class certificate, ABS Houston received a summary of the gauging report (as well as summaries of the other survey reports) from the ABS field office in Hong Kong, which indicated that all required gaugings had been conducted and reviewed. Spain’s argument, therefore, must be that ABS Houston in particular had a tort duty to conduct a substantive review of the gauging report itself prior to reissuing the class certificate, rather than leave the review to a field office, and thus that it was reckless for ABS Houston to have failed to conduct such a 25 review in this case. But Spain has not put forward evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that ABS, in its Houston office, acted recklessly here. On appeal, Spain relies on three pieces of evidence for the proposition that ABS Houston had a duty to substantively review: (1) the putative knowledge of ABS decisionmakers that “there were systemic deficiencies in the work of ABS’s field surveyors”; (2) statements by ABS that it would conduct a review of the survey records of all ABS-classed vessels aged 20 years or older; and (3) a February 2000 directive by Chief Surveyor Bourneuf that copies of survey reports for tankers aged 20 years or older be sent to him personally. Appellant’s Reply Br. 17. The evidence cited for point 1, however, is the memorialization of a discussion among senior ABS surveyors, regarding quality control of field surveys, that occurred in September 2001. We fail to see how this could be evidence of a breach of duty by ABS in May 2001. Nor do we see how a reasonable jury could conclude from ABS’s announcement that it would go back over past survey reports that ABS Houston in particular, rather than a regional ABS office, had a tort duty to substantively review gauging reports going forward, and that it was reckless in failing to do so. 26 Spain’s argument based on the Bourneuf directive suffers from the same shortcoming. We assume arguendo that (a) the directive applied to the report from the 2001 Special Survey of the Prestige; (b) the purpose of the directive was to ensure that ABS Houston conducted a substantive evaluation of each survey report, including the full gauging report; and (c) the directive was still in force in May 2001. These propositions without more, though, certainly do not allow a reasonable jury to conclude that in issuing the directive, Bourneuf (and through him ABS headquarters) thereby incurred a duty in tort substantively to review gauging reports, such that reliance on a field office’s summary of the gauging report would constitute recklessness per se.13 More broadly, even if such a duty were to exist, Spain has pointed to no evidence in the record, and we are aware of none, that would shed light on the circumstances surrounding ABS Houston’s putative failure to conduct such a review in this case—for example, whether the failure was due to administrative oversight, deliberate avoidance, or some other cause. That failure thus does not constitute evidence from which a fact-finder could conclude that ABS Houston’s 13 Spain also asserts, based on other ABS internal reports and record-keeping procedures, that “ABS headquarters was required to review [substantively] survey reports, including gaugings.” Appellant’s Reply Br. 16. We are skeptical that this assertion is correct; but even if it is, we again fail to see how ABS Houston’s failure to comply with that requirement, on its own, creates a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether ABS Houston recklessly breached a tort duty-to-review in this case. 27 conduct was not merely a negligent failure to exercise proper care, but rather a “conscious disregard of a known or obvious risk of harm . . . shar[ing] more in common with intentional torts than . . . with negligence,” Appellant’s Br. 36.