Today, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in one case: Great Lakes Insurance SE v. Raiders Retreat Realty Co., LLC, No. 22-500: This case involves the interaction between a contract’s choice-of-law...more
Maritime and admiralty law can be vastly different from the law in North Carolina. One area of continued interest to the maritime bar is how admiralty law should treat evidence of medical expenses, especially in light of the...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently reminded the legal community that liability for breach of the implied warranty of workmanlike performance (WWLP) is strict, and damages can end up being much more than...more
This week, the Ninth Circuit came back from the Thanksgiving break with a bang, issuing three long-awaited en banc decisions in criminal and immigration cases. Here at Left Coast, however, we’ve focused on two other civil...more
CCBJ: You're one of the very few judges in the nation who has been a proctor member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States. Please tell us about your 30-plus year career as an admiralty lawyer, including your...more
In a case decided on March 28, 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a maritime lien on a vessel for the "maintenance and cure" of an injured seaman was not subject to the "automatic stay" that generally arises...more
Can a Bankruptcy Court order the sale of a vessel “free and clear” of a seaman’s maritime lien for maintenance and cure under Bankruptcy Code § 363? According to the Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling in Barnes v. Sea Hawaii...more
In a twist on the old adage, “bad facts make bad law”, the Second Circuit’s recent decision in Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company v. Great American Insurance Company of New York, Civil Action No. 14-1346-cv, 2016 WL 2943139 (2d...more
In 2006, the Fifth Circuit issued a landmark controversial opinion in Texaco Exploration & Production, Inc. v. AmClyde Engineered Products Co., 448 F.3d 760, 770 (5th Cir.) amended on reh’g, 453 F.3d 652 (5th Cir. 2006). The...more
Shippers who are used to doing business with motor carriers often present freight brokers with a shipper-carrier agreement (often described as a “Motor Carrier Agreement”) of one kind or another to serve as the basis of a...more
In litigation arising from the July 2013 accident of Asiana Flight 214 at the San Francisco International Airport, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the District Court's remand decision, holding that...more
The Seventh Circuit issued an important opinion by Judge Easterbrook today, Lu Junhong v. Boeing Co., No. 14-1825, a clump of cases that arose after an Asiana Airlines jet manufactured by Boeing struck a seawall while landing...more
In 2013, approximately 1,147 commercial and military vessels were delivered by United States shipyards. This total includes vessels of all types – 8 deep-draft vessels and structures, 219 OSVs, tugs, towboats, passenger and...more
Two registries of significant interest to shipowners are the registries of the Republics of the Marshall Islands and Liberia. Significantly, insofar as it does not conflict with the statutory laws, each country has adopted...more
- An aircraft manufacturer's ability to remove a case to federal court based on admiralty jurisdiction involved consideration of whether "injury became inevitable" while the aircraft was still over water. ...more
The three men in the tub will no longer have recourse to the federal courts’ admiralty jurisdiction, at least not in the Eastern District of Louisiana. In Martin v. Fab-Con, Inc., 2014 WL 1246073 (E.D. La. Mar. 24, 2014) – a...more
As originally discussed in a recent post on Striding the Quarterdeck (December 9, 2013), amendments to 28 U.S.C. §1441 have effected a sea-change in admiralty procedure by ostensibly allowing removal of general maritime law...more