Opinion ID: 1920277
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Application of General Maritime Tort Law

Text: Because admiralty jurisdiction is established, all the substantive rules and precepts peculiar to the law of the sea become applicable. Pope & Talbot v. Hawn, 346 U.S. 406, 409, 74 S.Ct. 202, 98 L.Ed. 143 (1953). Under general maritime law, collision and allision liability is based on fault that caused or contributed to the damage incurred. See The Java, 81 U.S. (14 Wall.) 189, 20 L.Ed. 834 (1871). The concept of fault presupposes a standard of correct conduct. In collision and allision cases, the standard of care against which fault is determined is derived from (1) general concepts of prudent seamanship and reasonable care; (2) statutory and regulatory rules governing the movement and management of vessels and other maritime structures; and (3) recognized customs and usages. See Schoenbaum, supra, at § 14-2, p. 90; Grant Gilmore & Charles L. Black, Jr., The Law of Admiralty § 7-3, 488-89 (2nd ed.1975). Notably, the relevant statutes and regulations include both federal and state or local enactments, subject to the obvious requirement that the state and local laws do not contradict federal law. Gilmore & Black, supra, at § 7-3, p. 488. Moreover, the statutes and regulations must be determined to be applicable, i.e., the plaintiff must be included in the class of persons protected and the harm suffered must be the kind that the statute or rule was designed to prevent. Such a finding will trigger the application of the rule of The Pennsylvania, 86 U.S. (19 Wall.) 125, 136, 22 L.Ed. 148 (1873): The liability for damages is upon the ship or ships whose fault caused the injury. But when, as in this case, a ship at the time of a collision is in actual violation of a statutory rule intended to prevent collisions, it is no more than a reasonable presumption that the fault, if not the sole cause, was at least a contributory cause of the disaster. In such a case the burden rests upon the ship of showing not merely that her fault might not have been one of the causes, or that it probably was not, but that it could not have been. Such a rule is necessary to enforce obedience to the mandate of the statute. This concept of standard of care is essentially one of duty. The determination thus becomes what standard of care or duty is applicable to the parties at issue in this case and whether the obligated party's actions failed to meet that standard of care. Stated simply, whether the State owed a duty to the plaintiffs under the circumstances herein. Essential to the allision in this case is the unlit oilfield production platform. The crux of the plaintiffs' case against the State is the State's liability for the unlit structure. As this case arises in admiralty, we first examine whether the State had a duty to light the structure under federal maritime law.