Opinion ID: 2791314
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Continental’s Activities

Text: We conclude that the district court correctly held, as a matter of law, that Continental engages in ʺstevedoring activities.ʺ 6 An ʺother waterfront terminalsʺ is also defined as ʺany warehouse, depot or other terminal (other than a pier), whether enclosed or open, which is located in a marine terminal in the port of New York district and any part of which is used by any person to perform labor or services involving, or incidental to, the movement of waterborne freight or freight.ʺ N.Y. Unconsol. Laws § 9905(10). A ʺmarine terminalʺ is defined as ʺan area which includes piers, which is used primarily for the moving, warehousing, distributing or packing of waterborne freight or freight to or from such piers, and which, inclusive of such piers, is under common ownership or control.ʺ Id. ‐ 12 ‐ Continental provided quintessential stevedoring services under the Act, as it provided services ʺincidental to the movement of waterborne freight . . . at other waterfront terminals,ʺ N.Y. Unconsol. Laws § 9905(1)(b), and provided services ʺinvolving, or incidental to, the movement of freight into or out of containers . . . at other waterfront terminals,ʺ id. § 9905(1)(c). Continental also provided stevedoring services under the Commissionʹs Rulings, which, as discussed above, require licensing and registration for companies and contractors who provide services including cargo storage; weighing, strapping, crating, labeling, marking, inspecting, and sampling cargo; and unloading containers with freight that has been carried by a carrier of freight by water. See Rulings II.A.1, 2 & III.A.1. As the undisputed facts show, Continental provided all of these services in connection with containerized cargo removed from ships ‐‐ some 100 to 150 containers per week ‐‐ at the 112 Warehouse. Continental picked up the cargo from various local steamship piers, took it back to its facilities, stored it, and provided the services identified above. Continental argues, however, that its primary function is regular warehousing, and that the above‐detailed activities were merely ʺincidentalʺ to its regular warehousing activities. The district court correctly rejected this ‐ 13 ‐ argument. Continental Terminals, Inc. v. Waterfront Commʹn of N.Y. Harbor, No. 11 Civ. 4869, 2013 WL 5477487, at  (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2013). Even assuming that Continentalʹs ʺprimary functionʺ is regular warehousing, the level of these other activities engaged in by Continental was more than ʺincidental.ʺ Indeed, Continentalʹs business was to ʺgo to the piers, marine terminals, pick up containerized freight,ʺ and then take the cargo back to its facility where it ʺunload[ed] the cargo, and then . . . palletize[d] . . . [it] and put it into the warehouse and h[e]ld it for the client,ʺ providing weighing, strapping, sorting, and other stevedoring services. Joint App. 42. Clearly, unloading containers was more than ʺincidentalʺ to its warehouse function; indeed, Continental unloaded 100 to 150 containers per week.