Opinion ID: 451953
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 7 This court is obligated to raise jurisdictional issues sua sponte. Miller v. Transamerican Press, Inc., 709 F.2d 524, 527 n. 2 (9th Cir.1983); In re Exennium, Inc., 715 F.2d 1401, 1402 (9th Cir.1983). The threshold question, therefore, is to determine whether this action is within the federal courts' admiralty jurisdiction. Historically, admiralty jurisdiction was invoked if a tort occurred on or over navigable waters. Executive Jet Aviation, Inc. v. City of Cleveland, 409 U.S. 249, 253, 93 S.Ct. 493, 497, 34 L.Ed.2d 454 (1972); Owens-Illinois, Inc. v. United States District Court, 698 F.2d 967, 969 (9th Cir.1983). In Executive Jet, however, the Supreme Court rejected exclusive reliance on locality and held that in addition to having a maritime situs the wrong must bear a significant relationship to traditional maritime activity. Executive Jet, 409 U.S. at 268, 93 S.Ct. at 504. Although Executive Jet addressed maritime jurisdiction over an aviation tort claim, subsequent decisions have applied the two-part test to torts outside the aviation context. Foremost Insurance Co. v. Richardson, 457 U.S. 668, 674, 102 S.Ct. 2654, 2658, 73 L.Ed.2d 300 (1982); Owens-Illinois, Inc., 698 F.2d at 969-70. 8 In examining the first part of the maritime tort test, courts have traditionally defined the locus of the tort as the place where the injury occurs. See, e.g., Executive Jet, 409 U.S. at 266, 93 S.Ct. at 503; Smith v. Pan Air Corp., 684 F.2d 1102, 1111 (5th Cir.1982); Edynak v. Atlantic Shipping Inc. Cie. Chambon Maclovia S.A., 562 F.2d 215, 221 (3d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1034, 98 S.Ct. 767, 54 L.Ed.2d 781 (1978); Kelly v. United States, 531 F.2d 1144, 1146 (2d Cir.1976); Carroll v. Protection Maritime Insurance Co., 512 F.2d 4, 8 (1st Cir.1975); Oppen v. Aetna Insurance Co., 485 F.2d 252, 256 (9th Cir.1973). The injury in the present case occurred on the ramp of a ship, satisfying the requirement of maritime locality. 9 To determine whether the second part of the maritime tort standard is met, i.e., whether the alleged tort has a sufficient nexus to traditional maritime activity, this Circuit considers four factors: 10 (1) traditional concepts of the role of admiralty law; 11 (2) the function and role of the parties; 12 (3) the types of vehicles and instrumentalities involved; and 13 (4) the causation and nature of the injury suffered. 14 Owens-Illinois, Inc., 698 F.2d at 970 (citing T.J. Falgout Boats, Inc. v. United States, 508 F.2d 855, 857 (9th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 1000, 95 S.Ct. 2398, 44 L.Ed.2d 667 (1975)). 15 In Foremost Insurance Co., the Supreme Court defined the principle focus of maritime jurisdiction as the protection of maritime commerce. Foremost Insurance Co., 457 U.S. 668, 674, 102 S.Ct. 2654, 2658, 73 L.Ed.2d 300 (1982). The loading of cargo onto a vessel by two longshoremen falls squarely within the ambit of traditional maritime services or activities in furtherance of commerce. The goal of uniformity in the law governing maritime industries and the concern for providing remedies to those confronting the dangers of maritime employment militate toward admiralty jurisdiction in this case. Austin v. Unarco Industries, 705 F.2d 1, 11 (1st Cir.), cert. dismissed, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 34, 77 L.Ed.2d 1454 (1983); Kelly v. Smith, 485 F.2d 520, 526 (5th Cir.1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 969, 94 S.Ct. 1991, 40 L.Ed.2d 558 (1974). 16 Nor does an appraisal of the other three factors dissuade us of the presence of a significant maritime nexus with plaintiffs' tort claims. The longshoremen's function of loading or unloading a ship's cargo has traditionally been a concern of admiralty law. Atlantic Transport Co. v. Imbrovek, 234 U.S. 52, 61-62, 34 S.Ct. 733, 735, 58 L.Ed. 1208 (1914); Austin, 705 F.2d at 11; Edynak, 562 F.2d at 221. California United Terminals is a marine cargo terminal that holds cargo for shipment. But even if we were to find the maritime nexus of the terminal operator too attenuated, the nature of the defendant's activities is not the dispositive criterion. Oppen, 485 F.2d at 257. 17 The vehicles involved--an automobile and a jitney--are not inherently indigenous to maritime commerce, but viewed as instrumentalities to a vessel loading operation, are no less common to marine commerce than to land operations. The facts in the present case are easily distinguishable from Peytavin v. Government Employees Insurance Co., 453 F.2d 1121 (5th Cir.1972), in which an action for whiplash injuries allegedly suffered from a rear-end automobile collision on a floating pontoon at a ferry landing was held not to be within admiralty jurisdiction because of the absence of a connection with maritime interests or activities. Id. at 1122, 1126-27. The significant inquiry in the present case is not whether the instrumentality was an automobile rather than an item peculiar to maritime commerce, but whether the injury was inflicted during the conduct of a maritime service, such as loading cargo. 18 In determining whether the causation and nature of injury had a sufficient maritime flavor, other courts have focused on the site of consummation of the injury rather than the origin of the negligent act or omission. See, e.g., Smith v. Pan Air Corp., 684 F.2d at 1111 (place where negligence or wrongful act occurs not decisive; greater significance placed on function being performed by injured person); Sperry Rand Corp. v. Radio Corp. of America, 618 F.2d 319 (5th Cir.1980) (products liability action against manufacturer held cognizable in admiralty notwithstanding that component parts were not manufactured for solely maritime uses); Edynak, 562 F.2d 215 (longshoreman working aboard vessel struck by defendant's pier-based crane); In re Motorship Pacific Carrier, 489 F.2d 152 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 931, 94 S.Ct. 2643, 41 L.Ed.2d 235 (1974) (smoke from defendant's shore-based paper mill blinded pilot of ship resulting in collision with plaintiff's bridge); Kelly v. Smith, 485 F.2d 520 (defendant game preserve keeper shot poacher escaping in motorboat). Kelly v. Smith illustrates a particularly liberal application of maritime jurisdiction to an isolated incident of a pilot shot by a shore-based defendant. The court in Kelly reached this result by applying the same four-factor test our Circuit has adopted. In light of the preceding cases, we conclude that the fact that a direct cause of the longshoremen's injuries may have been shore-based negligence does not preclude the extension of admiralty jurisdiction to the accident on the ship's ramp. 19 The Second Circuit is the only circuit that has specifically addressed the applicability of admiralty jurisdiction to terminal operators. In Leather's Best, Inc. v. S.S. Mormaclynx, 451 F.2d 800 (2d Cir.1971), the court held that an action against a terminal operator for negligent loss of cargo is a state claim governed by state law, not cognizable in federal maritime jurisdiction. The plaintiff sued the terminal operator and the ocean carrier after his cargo disappeared from a guarded pier area where the vessel had been unloaded. The court found that the terminal operator, as bailee of the goods on the dock, was not a party to the maritime contract. More significantly, the court held that admiralty tort jurisdiction could not be applied because the tort--the theft of the cargo--occurred on land and admiralty jurisdiction in tort 'is necessarily bounded by locality.'  [Citations omitted]. Id. at 808. The court never reached the question whether the terminal operator was engaged in traditional maritime activity because the case was decided prior to Executive Jet, and therefore a strict locality test was applied. However, even if Leather's Best had been decided after Executive Jet, the result would have been the same, because the Supreme Court's requirements for maritime situs and nexus for admiralty tort jurisdiction are conjunctive. The nonmaritime situs of the loss of cargo would have dictated the application of state law. See Colgate Palmolive Co. v. S/S Dart Canada, 724 F.2d 313 (2d Cir.1983), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 2181, 80 L.Ed.2d 562 (1984) (following Leather's Best in finding action against terminal operator for negligent loss of cargo a state claim). Leather's Best is therefore inapposite to the instant case. Here, plaintiffs' injuries occurred on the ramp of a vessel in navigable waters, during the cargo loading operation, a traditional maritime service. We therefore find that this case falls within the federal courts' admiralty jurisdiction.