Opinion ID: 779336
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Providing Necessaries

Text: 43 Necessaries are defined as repairs, supplies, towage, and the use of a dry dock or marine railway. 46 U.S.C. § 31301(4). The list is not exhaustive, and in fact, modern admiralty jurisprudence interprets necessaries broadly, as anything that facilitates or enables a vessel to perform its mission or occupation. Equilease Corp. v. M/V Sampson, 793 F.2d 598, 603 (5th Cir.1986); Farwest Steel, 769 F.2d at 623. The term necessaries includes most goods or services that are useful to the vessel and keep her out of danger. See Equilease, 793 F.2d at 603. Necessaries indubitably include the things a prudent owner would provide to enable a ship to perform her particular function. Id. 44 The Ships were engaged in squid fishing, and the services provided by Ventura Packers facilitated their performance of that particular task. Priority dock access and efficient unloading services returned the Ships to sea quickly, thereby maximizing the number of squid caught and the profit gained. See Porello, 330 U.S. at 456, 67 S.Ct. 847(holding unpaid stevedores asserted a maritime necessaries lien); see also William Tetley, Stevedores & Maritime Liens, 8 Mar. Law. 269, 270 (1983). Such services also ensured the freshness and marketability of the catch. Some evidence also indicates that Ventura Packers provided goods to the Ships. 45 The district court did not reach the issue whether the goods and services provided by Ventura Packers to the Ships were necessaries. We decline to decide this issue in the first instance, and hence, leave for the district court to determine whether the goods and services furnished by Ventura Packer are properly deemed necessaries, and if so, the extent and value of those necessaries.