Court Opinion

ID: 9463795
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:16:40.183758+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:17.574555
License: Public Domain

WEBSTER, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority that the judgment in favor of Pasco, the injured dock owner, against Security, owner of the barges, should be affirmed.
I disagree, however, with its conclusion that Security is entitled to indemnity from Taylor Towing. The majority opinion states:
Under the circumstances, although in its defense against Pasco, Security failed to prove that Taylor Towing was at fault, nonetheless as between the tug and the tow, under the cross-claim, the mooring tug was required to show that it was not at fault.
I respectfully disagree.
The District Court found that the barge had been moored to the shore in a seaman-like manner. It is undisputed that the barge was moored to a tree and that it remained at its mooring for three days. There is simply no basis for holding the District Court’s finding to be clearly erroneous. There was no evidence to the contrary unless it be found in a presumption arising from the barge going adrift.
Cases relied upon by the majority are not persuasive and are readily distinguishable. In Monsanto Co. v. Edwards Towing Corp., 318 F.Supp. 13 (E.D.Mo.1969), the barge came adrift in less than five hours. In The Norwich Victory, 77 F.Supp. 264 (E.D.Pa. 1948), aff’d sub nom., United States v. Dump Scows No. 116, No. 120 and No. 122, 175 F.2d 556 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, American Dredging Co. v. United States, 338 U.S. 871, 70 S.Ct. 147, 94 L.Ed. 534 (1949), the time interval was three or four hours. The majority cites no authority for extending a presumption of fact arising from drifting “a short time” after mooring1 to a period of three days. The functional reliability which might support a presumption for four hours is certainly dissipated after three days. Once the barges had been properly moored, the duty of the tower was at an *813end.2 The burden was upon Security to prove a breach of that duty. No other physical evidence was advanced; Security’s case for indemnity stands or falls upon the claimed presumption of negligence. It was for the District Court to weigh the effect of that presumption in the light of the three-day interval between mooring and drifting together with the other facts and circumstances in the case. The Court was not persuaded that Security had met its burden; I cannot say that its finding was clearly erroneous. To the contrary, in my view it would have warranted reversal to have bottomed indemnity upon so slender a reed.
I would affirm the District Court in all respects.

. My own view is that drifting after even a “short time” creates no more than a permissible inference of negligence, especially where there is no bailment, but I will assume the law of presumptions is applicable here. Case authority is very scanty and even the two cases cited by the majority are based in part upon other circumstances present in the respective cases.

. Any duty of inspection must therefore have ' been in connection with the mooring, and not subsequent thereto. In Monsanto Co. v. Edwards Towing Corp., supra, by way of contrast, the barges were moored in a fleet mooring operated by the tower when they went adrift; hence the duty of inspection was a continuing one.