Opinion ID: 46710
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Wreck Act

Text: 12 The Wreck Act, 33 U.S.C. § 409, provides in relevant part: 13 [W]henever a vessel, raft or other craft is wrecked and sunk in a navigable channel, it shall be the duty of the owner, lessee, or operator of such sunken craft to immediately mark it with a buoy or beacon during the day and, unless otherwise granted a waiver by the Commandant of the Coast Guard, a light at night, and to maintain such marks until the sunken craft is removed or abandoned, and the neglect or failure of the said owner, lessee, or operator so to do shall be unlawful; and it shall be the duty of the owner, lessee, or operator of such sunken craft to commence the immediate removal of the same, and prosecute such removal diligently . . . . 14 The provisions of the Wreck Act thus apply only to owners, lessees, and operators of sunken crafts. Fuesting's position is that the District is an operator. The summary judgment evidence on this point includes (1) an agreement between Griffin and the District, whereby Griffin agreed to hold harmless the District 4 and (2) the District's failed attempt to remove the shrimp boat. In response to Fuesting's operator argument, the District both below and on appeal points out that the agreement between Griffin and the District was a mere release of liability and argues that the agreement does not make the District an operator under the Wreck Act. The court below agreed with the District and held that the District was at no time an operator of the shrimp boat. In particular, the district court found that: 15 [T]he agreement between the District and Griffin, and the actions taken by the District, do not render the District an operator of the sunken shrimp boat as that term was intended under the Wreck Act. Even if the Court determined that the document signed by Griffin was sufficient to create a towing contract, which it does not, the fact remains that the boat was never towed anywhere by the District, whose attempt to move the boat was almost completely unsuccessful. 16 (footnote omitted). 17 Because the district court's unsupported application of the term operator is too narrow, we disagree with its finding that the District was not an operator under the Wreck Act. Indeed, the district court's narrow interpretation of responsible parties runs counter to the original purpose of the Act and the purpose of the 1986 amendment. 18 A purpose of the Wreck Act was to facilitate the marking or removal of dangerous obstructions in navigable waters. Univ. of Tex. Med. Branch v. United States, 557 F.2d 438, 441 (5th Cir.1977) (Congress sought to ensure that navigable waterways remained free of obstructions, including sunken vessels.). The purpose of amending the Wreck Act in 1986 was to increase the ability of the Corps of Engineers to recover wreck-removal expenses. See S. REP. No. 99-126, at 26 (1985) (noting that ordinarily recovery costs exceed salvage value). The District does not contest the position that a towing vessel can violate the Wreck Act and, therefore, have responsibility for the removal of a sunken tow owned by a non-negligent party. See Agri-Trans Corp. v. Gladders Barge Line, Inc., 721 F.2d 1005, 1008 (5th Cir.1983) (noting that the cost of recovering a sunken vessel can be imposed on a negligent non-owner). See also St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Vest Transp. Co., 666 F.2d 932, 941 (5th Cir.1982) ([T]he negligent owner of the towing vessel . . . would be personally liable to the government for the cost of removal of the sunken vessel as a hazard to navigation unless [the owner] promptly removed the barge.). 5 Instead, the District claims, and the court below agreed, that the agreement between Griffin and the District was not a towage contract because the written release from liability did not contain any statements related to movement of the vessel or towage. Oral contracts, however, are valid in admiralty. See Kossick v. United Fruit Co., 365 U.S. 731, 734, 81 S.Ct. 886, 6 L.Ed.2d 56 (1961). The district court erred by resolving this issue by reference to the written agreement alone. 19 The district court also found that, even if the agreement between Griffin and the District were a towing agreement, the District's actions in attempting to move the boat did not confer operator status because such actions were almost completely unsuccessful. We disagree. An entity that enters a towing contract but subsequently fails to tow the vessel as far as intended does not escape operator status because of its failure. This result better aligns the definition of operator with Congress's intent so as to not limit the potential sources of cost recovery for the government and the pool of persons to fulfill the duties imposed under the Wreck Act. The district court erred in finding that, even if there was a towing agreement, because the District's attempted removal of the shrimp boat was unsuccessful, the District was not an operator under the Wreck Act.