Opinion ID: 519284
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Federal Maritime Lien Act

Text: 8 The federal Maritime Lien Act grants a maritime lien to any person 1) furnishing repairs, supplies, or other necessaries 2) to any vessel 3) 'upon the order of the owner of such vessel, or of a person authorized by the owner.'  Farwest I, 769 F.2d at 623 (quoting 46 U.S.C.App. Sec. 971). The parties agree that Marine Fuel furnished necessaries to the Ken Lucky. Ken Lucky admits that Bulkferts was in possession and control of the vessel during the time it docked in Tampa. Thus, Bulkferts qualifies as an authorized person under section 972 because it was the person to whom the management of the vessel at the port of supply [was] intrusted. 3 9 The district court based its refusal to find an agency relationship between Bulkferts and Brook on two propositions: 1) that Brook was an independent corporation; and 2) that Brook was a back-to-back trader. Marine Fuel argues that Brook can be an independent corporation and still have acted as Bulkferts' agent in the disputed transaction. See Protective Ins. Co. v. Coleman, 144 Ill.App.3d 682, 98 Ill.Dec. 914, 923, 494 N.E.2d 1241, 1250 (1986); Restatement (Second) Agency Sec. 14 (1958). We look to principles of agency to interpret the Act's references to agents. Cactus Pipe & Supply Co. v. M/V Montmartre, 756 F.2d 1103, 1111 (5th Cir.1985). We examine the roles of the parties in the transactions at issue to determine if a person has presumed authority under the Act. See, e.g., Farwest I, 769 F.2d at 623-24; Farwest Steel Corp. v. Barge Sea-Span, 828 F.2d 522, 525-26 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1594, 99 L.Ed.2d 909 (1988) (Farwest II ). 10 The parties agree that the order originated from Bulkferts. Thus, we need not reach the question whether the district court's conclusion that Brook was not Bulkfert's agent is erroneous because appellees have already admitted that the fuel and bunkers were sold to Bulkferts. We conclude that Marine Fuel need not establish agency between Brook and Bulkferts to fall within the scope of one entitled to a maritime lien under the Act. 11 Ken Lucky concedes that Bulkferts was authorized to bind the vessel. It is clear that Eurostem, as managing agent for Bulkferts, did order the fuel and it is also clear that Marine Fuel delivered the fuel to the vessel. Section 971 states that any person furnishing supplies or other necessaries to a vessel upon the order of a person authorized to bind the vessel shall be entitled to lien. It is clear that Eurostem, as managing agent for Bulkferts, ordered the fuel, and it is also clear that Marine Fuel delivered the fuel to the vessel. Bulkferts had statutory authority to order the fuel under section 972 and it did so. Marine Fuel delivered the fuel to the vessel after Bulkferts ordered it. Thus, this case can be easily distinguished from the situation present in Farwest II. 12 In Farwest II, we affirmed the district court's finding that the general contractor did not qualify as an authorized person to bind the vessel under Sec. 972. Id. at 525-26. We distinguished between the general contractor's responsibility for vessel repairs and one who has broad management powers to qualify as a person intrusted with management of the vessel under Sec. 972, relying on a line of cases in which courts have uniformly held that the general repair contractor was not endowed with sufficient 'management' authority to support a section 971 lien. Id. at 526. However, no restrictive repair contract line of cases governs the issue here. Further, no specific instruction was given in Farwest, as Bulkferts gave here, authorizing Eurostem to order the bunkers through Brook. 13 In Farwest, the steel was ordered by a contractor repairing the vessel. No one with authority to lien the vessel originated the order. Here Bulkferts, which clearly possessed the statutory authority to bind the vessel, ordered and received the bunkers and fuel. Thus, we are not confronted with a Farwest II situation, where a person who never had authority originated the order. 14