Opinion ID: 200824
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Coast Guard is unlike state public safety officials

Text: 127 The lack of federal case law or legislative history granting the Coast Guard authority to force a captain from his vessel has led the majority to analogize the actions of the Coast Guard to actions of state public officials during times of emergencies on land. The majority concluded that it is reasonable to assume  (emphasis added) that Congress intended to confer powers to the Coast Guard analogous to those possessed by state safety officials, namely, the power to rescue a person even against his will in life-threatening situations. Maj. Op. at II(B)(3). I find such an assumption totally unwarranted and, like other parts of the majority opinion, unsupported by any authority. 128 First, there is nothing in the text of § 88 or its legislative history to support such an assertion, and furthermore, the assumption that Congress intended to confer such extraordinary powers by analogy or by implication is in itself a dubious proposition. See, e.g., Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp., 470 U.S. at 470, 105 S.Ct. 1441 (refusing to transfer, by analogy, the wording of a state statute into a federal statute because neither the language of the [federal] statute nor the circumstances surrounding its passage supported such an analogy). 129 Second, in those cases where courts have found that state safety officials were specifically granted the power to force people from their homes during life-threatening emergencies, that power had been authorized by specific legislative enactment. See, e.g., Alaska Stat. § 18.70.075(a)(2) (granting the fire department authority to... order a person to leave a building); see also Conn. Gen.Stat. § 7-313b; Del. Code Ann. tit. 16, § 6701A(2); N.H.Rev. Stat. Ann. § 154:7; Tenn.Code Ann. § 6-21-703; W. Va.Code § 29-3A-1. In contrast, there is no federal statute remotely similar to these state statutes specifically granting the Coast Guard authority to order a ship's master to abandon his vessel. Moreover, unlike state governments, the federal government does not have a general police power — something that is probably beyond the authority of any branch of the federal government to create extra-constitutionally. See Lottery Case, 188 U.S. 321, 23 S.Ct. 321, 47 L.Ed. 492 (1903). 130 Third, life-threatening emergencies on land are very different from life-threatening emergencies at sea. Many state statutes grant the state governor or local authorities the power to declare an emergency which would result in a forced evacuation. See, e.g., Alaska Stat. 26.23.020; Fla. Stat. Ann. § 252.38; Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 37-B, § 742; Minn.Stat. Ann. § 12.21; Or.Rev. Stat. §§ 401.305, 401.309; Tenn.Code Ann. § 58-2-118. On land, it may be presumed that a trained law enforcement official has more knowledge than an average person about an impending emergency, such as a storm or a fire. At sea, however, a captain's expertise regarding his ship places him in the best position to determine the actual peril of his vessel and how best to save it. Coast Guardsmen, unfamiliar with the vessel involved in the emergency, ought not be able to substitute their judgment for that of the master by forcing evacuation upon him. In an emergency situation, it is unwise for the least knowledgeable to command the most knowledgeable. 131 Fourth, allowing the Coast Guard to dictate to the master how to save his ship interferes with the vital relationship between a master and his vessel. As one expert on the duties of a master has testified, a master has no umbilical cord of support. He is the sole decision maker and he lives with the responsibility that he's got to discharge, under adverse and varied conditions, calling upon those levels of expertise at moments and when he's least expecting it. In re Exxon Valdez, 1995 WL 527990, at  (D.Alaska, Jan.27, 1995). The exigencies and realities of life at sea require that there be a rigid chain of command aboard a ship. A master's responsibility to his ship is nondelegable and should be free from officious meddling. Particularly in times of life-threatening emergencies, it is unwise to interfere with the chain of command by forcing the master to succumb to the orders and directions of an intervening governmental bureaucracy, particularly one which ultimately disclaims responsibility for its actions. 132