Opinion ID: 456170
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hercules' Allegations of Error

Text: 91 Hercules argues that the effect of the district court holding is to make the shipowner liable without limitation for errors of navigation and management of the vessel, unless the owner adopts a failsafe method of monitoring performance. Hercules points out that such a ruling would be contrary to law and public policy. Hercules cites Farrell Lines, Inc. v. Jones, 530 F.2d 7 (5th Cir.1976) as authority claiming that, there, as here, the predominating cause of the accident was held to be navigation error. Hercules contends that in both cases the predominating error occurred without the privity or knowledge of the shipowner. In Farrell Lines, the court of appeals in holding that the shipowners were entitled to limitation of liability, concluded that although the elimination of the personnel and equipment errors might have reduced the possibility of collision, that is not the standard by which we are to determine ... limitation. Rather, we must ask whether the procedures and equipment utilized rendered the vessel reasonably fit under the circumstances. Farrell Lines, supra, 530 F.2d at 12 (footnote omitted) (emphasis in original). The appellant argues that the district court failed to apply this standard and erred in not finding that the procedures and equipment utilized by Hercules rendered the vessel reasonably fit under the circumstances. 92 The appellant next points to passages in the district court opinion where the court used the word insure and argues that the use of this language clearly indicates that the district court was imposing on Hercules the obligation of an insurer rather than the obligation of reasonable care or due diligence. The appellant also contends that the allision was not caused by insufficient personnel on the bridge or on the bow, the failure to follow formal turnover procedures, the master being on the bridge without a watch officer, or the fact that the Chinese licenses of two of the three mates could not be validated. Appellant claims that the district court erred in placing failsafe requirements upon the shipowner to guarantee that the above infractions not occur as a prerequisite to a grant of limitation of liability. Finally, the appellant generally argues that the cases cited by the district court in support of its finding of privity and knowledge are not on point because those cases involve negligent acts or conditions of unseaworthiness obviously within the knowledge of the owners, whereas in this case failure to slow or come to anchor sooner was obviously the result of operational decisions made exclusively on the bridge of the ship, negating any possibility of privity or knowledge on the part of the owners. 93