Opinion ID: 3046278
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Safety and Reliability

Text: FTS introduced evidence that it was a reliable, safe, and competent stevedore to show that it would have received a stevedore permit in 2003, 2004 and 2005 had the Port Director properly applied the County’s permit ordinance as written. FTS President John Gorman testified that FTS had no significant safety problems from 1993 to 2005 and that FTS provided stevedore service for Disney Cruise Lines at Port Canaveral, Florida. Edward Gonzalez, Seaboard Marine’s president and CEO, testified that FTS had provided stevedoring for Seaboard Marine container vessels in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Gonzalez could not say anything negative about FTS’s stevedore work and had no complaints about FTS’s performance. Roland Malins-Smith, the president of shipper Seafreight Agencies, U.S.A., testified that his company had used FTS as its stevedore at Port Everglades, Florida, for 12 years. Malins-Smith stated that his company never had safety concerns with FTS. Even the Port Director admitted that his letters denying FTS’s stevedore permit applications after 1999 did not say anything negative about FTS’s competence or safety. The jury also heard evidence that the Port Director automatically granted permit applications of incumbent stevedores and 73 Case: 11-10475 Date Filed: 12/28/2012 Page: 74 of 81 automatically rejected new applicants. At trial, the Port Director admitted that his rubber-stamp approval process shielded incumbent stevedores from new competition and granted permits to companies that were not doing stevedore work at the Port. The Port Director conceded that he had not ranked stevedore permit applicants according to need in 2003, 2004, or 2005 and did not know how he would have ranked FTS in those years.