Opinion ID: 3046278
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Seaboard Marine Stevedoring

Text: FTS also introduced evidence showing that FTS could have operated more efficiently than Eller-ITO and other stevedores. FTS President Gorman testified that by using a mobile harbor crane he purchased in 2000, FTS’s “efficiency would be close to triple what [Seaboard Marine’s] current . . . stevedore [Eller-ITO’s] was” because Eller-ITO used slower, “stick” cranes. Gorman explained that FTS’s faster service would have allowed Seaboard Marine’s ships to “go slower and save all that money in fuel and/or overtime in the other ports.” FTS’s non-union labor also offered greater flexibility to shippers because International Longshoreman’s Association (“ILA”) union labor, which Eller-ITO and other stevedores used, could be acquired only with 24 hours’ notice. FTS could provide stevedore labor in as little as four hours. In addition, trial evidence showed that because FTS used non-union labor, it 74 Case: 11-10475 Date Filed: 12/28/2012 Page: 75 of 81 would have been able to offer stevedore service to Seaboard Marine at a discount relative to Eller-ITO, Seaboard Marine’s stevedore in 2003, 2004, and 2005. Forensic accountant Thomas Bastian testified that he examined FTS’s cost records, invoices, and financial statements and invoices from Eller-ITO and Florida Stevedoring. Bastian also reviewed invoices from several cruise lines calling at the Port of Miami and labor agreements between the ILA union and FTS’s competitors. Bastian testified that FTS’s stevedoring rates were “substantially less than the rates being charged by Eller-ITO and Florida Stevedoring.” Based on the differences in stevedoring rates alone, Bastian concluded that Seaboard Marine would have saved $7.5 million by employing FTS from 2003 to 2005 rather than Eller-ITO. Altogether, Bastian concluded that had FTS served as Seaboard Marine’s stevedore from 2003 to 2005, FTS would have realized a total net profit of $2.6 million. Tom Paelinck worked for Seaboard Marine from 1988 to 2007 and was Seaboard Marine’s Port of Miami operations manager from 1995 to 1998. Paelinck explained that price was an important factor in deciding which stevedore to hire. Paelinck further testified that sometimes he was satisfied with Eller-ITO’s stevedore services at the Port of Miami and sometimes he was dissatisfied. The 75 Case: 11-10475 Date Filed: 12/28/2012 Page: 76 of 81 Port Director’s 1999 needs assessment showed that Seaboard Marine’s thenpresident John Lynch gave Port of Miami stevedores a ranking of 4 out of 10 when asked to evaluate the stevedores’ efficiency.