Proctor in Admiralty

Why Proctor in Admiralty?

From the about section of the website of the Maritime Law Association of the United States:

The designation "Proctor in Admiralty" is of ancient origin and applied to lawyers entitled to handle maritime litigation. The word "Proctor" was derived from the Roman word "Procurator", which was translated into English as "Proctor" when the Admiralty Courts were set up in England in the 13th century with jurisdiction over disputes within the Royal Navy as well as purely commercial maritime matters. The designation was continued in the American colonies and, until recently, in our federal court system.

Connexion by Boeing Announces Pricing for High-Speed Internet Service for the Maritime Market

It looks like Boeing is expanding its Connexion product from the airplane to shipping: Connexion by Boeing Announces Pricing for High-Speed Internet Service for the Maritime Market.

5mbps downloads and in 2006 television broadcasts via a broadband connection for $2500 per month.  Could be interesting.

I have yet to see the Connexion service on any flights that I have taken although Boeing has signed contracts with several international airlines.

KnowSavannah - a new way to market your business via SMS launches in Savannah

Far Off Topic (but worthwhile posting) I have become involved in a community project called KnowSavannah.  Essentially, it allows merchants who sign up for a very reasonable price (currently $100 for the remainer of the year) to send a limited number of text messages to the subscriber base who agrees to accept those messages.

The text messages will include information about Savannah, coupons to the various merchants and information regarding events such as the Savannnah Music Festival.  It allow the merchants to reach qualified consumers (those who elect to receive information from the particular merchant) in realtime.

Imagine the restaurant owner who, on any particular night, is looking at a bunch of empty tables.  He send a quick SMS to all of the qualified subscribers and offers them 20% off if they show the "coupon" that night -  and it is free to the subscriber and almost free to the merchant, all done by a volunteer group that just wants to show that Savannah "gets it" when it comes to embracing technology.  Seems like a win all the way around.

Check it out at www.knowsavannah.com

Environmentally Friendly Shipping

Kudos to Wallenius Wilhelmsen for commissioning the design of an environmentally friendly ro-ro vessel.  Accoding to Wallenius Wilhelmsen's press release,  a scale model of the ship that demonstrates some of the exciting technical ideas produced by the design team, has now been constructed and will take centre stage in the Nordic Pavilion at the forthcoming World Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan. A working version of the vessel, which does not require ballast water tanks and produces no emissions is expected around 2025.  The vessel, dubbed the E/S (Environmentally sound Ship) Orcelle,  is named after the Irrawaddy dolphin, also known as the Orcelle dolphin, and is currently on the endangered species list.

Blogging revisited and Stewart v. Dutra!

When I first started Proctor in Admiralty, I promised myself that I would post at least three times per week. That lasted about two weeks and then life got in the way as it so often does. But now I am back and I will try much harder to make this a good resource for maritime and technology information. I don’t expect that I can match Dennis Bryant, and his daily Maritime Items on mainly governmental/maritime issues, but I will do my best to keep all of those interested, apprised of developments mainly in technology affecting the practice of maritime law and in the maritime industry.

 So, what kind of a maritime law blogger would I be if I did not cover the Supreme Court's recent decision in Stewart v. Dutra. Stewart was a marine engineer, who was injured aboard a dredge while working for the Dutra Construction Company. Dutra, was in the process of digging a trench in Boston Harbor using Dutra’s Super Scoop, “the world’s largest dredge”.

 Stewart sued Dutra pursuant to the "Jones Act", 46 U.S.C. § 688 (a), which allows “any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment” to sue the employer for negligence and  under §5(b) of the Long­shore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA), 33 U. S. C. §905(b), which authorizes covered employees to sue a “vessel” owner as a third party for an injury caused by the owner’s negligence. The District Court granted Dutra summary judgment on the Jones Act claim, and the First Circuit affirmed. On remand, the District Court granted Dutra summary judgment on the LHWCA claim. In affirm­ing, the First Circuit noted that Dutra had conceded that the dredge was a “vessel” under §905(b), but found that Dutra’s alleged negligence had been committed in its capacity as an employer and not as the vessel’s owner. The Supreme Court had previously held that to qualify for “seaman” status under the Jones Act, a worker must have an “employment-related connection to a vessel in navigation.”  Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, 515 U.S. 347 (1995).  The First Circuit relied on its definition of “vessel” in DiGiovanni v. Traylor Bros, 959 F.2d 1119 (1st Cir. 1992) (en banc) and thus excluding the dredge from the category of a "vessel in navigation" for purposes of the Jones Act.

The Supreme Court reversed the appellate court and held that term “vessel”, for the purposes of both the LHWCA and Jones Act, is defined at 1 USC §3 and includes every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water.

 

E:\dutra.doc

This is a very broad definition and encompasses almost anything that can float.   So now we just need to wait for the first case of a power boat pulled inflatable tube "vessel" accident!