Opinion ID: 791375
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Oregon

Text: 15 M/V DIANE OAK's first contention on appeal is that the district court erroneously applied the presumption of fault announced in The Oregon, 158 U.S. 186, 15 S.Ct. 804, 39 L.Ed. 943 (1895), against her and thus in favor of the three other vessels. 5 Applying this presumption of fault was error, she contends, because the Oregon rule should apply only in favor of the damaged stationary object and therefore is inapposite given the facts at hand: where liability is uncontested as between the damaged stationary object and the alliding vessel and the only question (beyond the extent of damages sustained by the stationary object) is liability for the allision as between the navigating vessels. 16 We conclude, however, that we need not decide the applicability vel non of the Oregon rule in order to resolve this appeal. Evidentiary presumptions . . . are designed to fill a factual vacuum. Once evidence is presented . . . presumptions become superfluous because the parties have introduced evidence to dispel the mysteries that gave rise to the presumptions. 6 17 In this case, the outcome-determinative questions in this allision case concern: (1) breach of the duty of care on the part of the four vessels, and (2) causation, with causation having sub-elements of: (a) cause in fact and (b) proximate or legal cause. And on all of these scores, the district court considered all of the evidence presented at trial and made specific findings. So even though the court may have framed its breach analysis through the lens of the Oregon rule, the court nevertheless made findings of duty, breach, and causation regarding M/V DIANE OAK and each of the other three vessels independent of that presumption that account for the result it reached. These findings, therefore, properly cabined the scope of the Oregon rule, which speaks explicitly only to a presumed breach on the part of the alliding vessel, 7 and is not a presumption regarding either the question of causation (either cause in fact or legal cause) or the percentages of fault assigned parties adjudged negligent. 8 18 Because the district court did not erroneously apply the Oregon presumption here, the only available basis for this appeal becomes the propriety of the district court's findings regarding the respective fault of each of the four vessels and whether any or all of that fault was a contributory and proximate cause of the allision. 9 Evaluating the propriety of the district court's findings requires this court to consider M/V DIANE OAK's second contention on appeal, viz., that the district court's proximate cause analysis with regard to the M/V GOTLAND SPIRIT and the M/V GINNY STONE amounted to an application of the last clear chance doctrine.