Opinion ID: 731036
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Test for abandonment

Text: 33 The ASA does not define the term abandonment. Thus, Congress presumably intended that courts apply the definition of abandonment that has evolved under maritime law. Traditionally, maritime law has found abandonment when title to a vessel has been affirmatively renounced, or when circumstances give rise to an inference that the vessel has been abandoned; courts have found abandonment, for instance, when a vessel is so long lost that time can be presumed to have eroded any realistic claim of original title. Martha's Vineyard Scuba Headquarters, Inc. v. Unidentified, Wrecked and Abandoned Steam Vessel, 833 F.2d 1059, 1065 (1st Cir.1987). 34 The Fourth Circuit in Columbus-America reversed the district court's finding that even though a number of insurance companies had paid claims on a wreck in 1857, the insurance companies had abandoned their title to the wreck. Id. at 468. The district court inferred abandonment by the insurance companies on the basis of its finding that the insurance companies had made no efforts to find the wreck and had destroyed any documentation they once had concerning the case. Columbus-America Discovery Group v. The Unidentified, Wrecked and Abandoned Sailing Vessel, 742 F.Supp. 1327, 1344-45 (E.D.Va.1990), rev'd 974 F.2d 450 (4th Cir.1992). In holding that abandonment could only be found on the basis of an express renunciation of ownership, the Fourth Circuit introduced a significant modification into maritime law. See Columbus-America, 974 F.2d at 472 (Widener, J., dissenting). The State of California argues that the district court erred by adopting the Fourth Circuit's rule in this case, rather than relying on the traditional approach to abandonment which allows abandonment to be inferred on the basis of circumstantial evidence. 35 Although the district court in this case cites the Fourth Circuit's decision in Columbus-America, its holding that the Brother Jonathan is not abandoned rests on the traditional rule that a wreck is not abandoned unless either 1) title is affirmatively renounced or 2) abandonment can be inferred from the lapse of time or failure to pursue salvage efforts on the part of the owners. The district court states: 36 Herbert's testimony [the only testimony offered by the State on the issue of abandonment], by itself, does not provide a sufficient basis for the court to conclude that the owners of the Brother Jonathan have taken a 'clear and unmistakable affirmative act to indicate a purpose to repudiate ownership' in the Brother Jonathan and its cargo. In addition, the State has failed to provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the Brother Jonathan has been abandoned due to the lapse of time, or because the owners of the vessel have failed to undertake salvage efforts. 37 883 F.Supp. at 1352 (emphasis added). Thus, the State's argument that the district court applied the wrong test lacks merit. 38 Further, the district court's failure to infer abandonment from the evidence presented by the State was not clearly erroneous. DSR presented a newspaper article dating from the time of the wreck listing a number of insurance companies that insured the cargo of the Brother Jonathan. These insurance companies took title to at least part of the wreck by right of subrogation and under the ASA regulations when they paid claims on the Brother Jonathan. 6 DSR also presented evidence of agreements it reached with two of the insurance companies assigning title to the wreck to DSR. Finally, DSR presented undisputed evidence that the technology required to salvage the Brother Jonathan has been developed only in the last few years, so that successful salvage efforts would have been impossible until very recently. When the technology to conduct salvage operations has been developed recently, failure on the part of an owner to attempt to salvage the wreck does not give rise to an inference that the owner has abandoned title to the vessel. See, e.g., Zych v. Unidentified, Wrecked and Abandoned Vessel, Believed to be the SB Lady Elgin, 755 F.Supp. 213, 216 (N.D.Ill.1990), amended 1991 WL 2536 (1991). 39 In response, the State presented a single witness on the issue of abandonment, who had conducted only twenty-two hours of research in the week before the hearing and did not know whether the insurance companies who paid claims on the Brother Jonathan had conducted any salvage efforts. Thus, the State presented the district court with no evidence that the insurance companies intended to abandon the wreck. The district court did not clearly err in finding that the insurance companies did not abandon title.