The State of Washington’s Department of Ecology has released a new draft of the Boatyard General Permit. They will be accepting written comments on the draft permit until May 28, 2010 at 5 p.m. There are a few notable changes in the new permit.
A longer discussion of these new changes can be found on our firm's website and information about the new Boatyard General Permit can be found at the Department of Ecology's website.
On May 13, Transocean, owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that sank and caused the ongoing Gulf oil spill, has filed for limitation of liability under federal maritime law in a Houston court, seeking to limit its liability and stay all pending lawsuits against the company.
Many of the news reports to date have referred to limitation of liability as a "legal loophole" and suggested that it is some obscure, little-used and out-of-date rule. Although I am horrified by this disaster like most people, I think we should be wary of condemning the limitation of liability rule so simplistically. Limitation has a long history and a valuable function. It should not be abandoned or curtailed on the basis of one case, no matter how disastrous.
More to the point, limitation may well not apply. Many of the media reports do not mention that Transocean will only be able to limit its liability if it can show that the incident occurred without the "privity or knowledge" of the company. This will be an uphill climb for Transocean, and limitation is far from certain.
While I certainly hope that the victims of this terrible disaster (including the U.S. taxpayer) are able to obtain fair damages from all responsible parties, we should be careful not to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" in our zeal to see wrongdoing punished and harm compensated.
A longer article about this case can be found at our website.
All military vessels, fishing and commercial vessels under 79 feet long have been exempt from needing VGP coverage since July 31, 2008. Certain discharges from these vessels, such as ballast water, are not exempt. On July 31, 2010 a two-year moratorium that allowed for those exemptions will conclude. Vessel owners and operators need to be prepared for the conclusion of the exemption.
Vessel owners and operators will need to get a Vessel General Permit (VGP) from the EPA. It is possible to file for the VGP electronically or by printing the paper version. Information about both can be found below at our prior blog post about VGPs .
More information about the moratorium and the paper version of the VGP can be found at the EPA's website.
Information about electronic filing of the VGP is available at the EPA's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System website.
Senator Whitehouse (Rhode Island) introduced legislation that would remove the cap on punitive damages set by the United States Supreme Court in Exxon Shipping Company v. Baker. The Supreme Court's cap on punitive damages in the Exxon spill case resulted in a recovery of damages far below the actual damages that were sustained by all affected over time.
In the Exxon spill case, over 40,000 claims were also tossed out under the application of the Robbins Drydock doctrine, such that all those who suffered economic loss without being in actual contact with oil, had no viable claim, except commercial fisherman.
Text of the legislation is not yet available from the GPO, but is most likely a direct response by Senator Whitehouse, a longtime advocate for the protection of ocean waters, to the Deepwater Horizon casualty.
In the wake of the Coast Guard's report on the sinking of the F/V KATMAI, the 17th Coast Guard District has issued Safety Alert 01-10 addressing stability practices for Alaska commercial fishermen. The Safety Alert can be accessed here.
Jess G. Webster
Mikkelborg, Broz, Wells & Fryer, PLLC*
1001 Fourth Avenue, Suite 3600
Seattle, WA 98154
Ph. (206) 623-5890
Cell (206) 612-3051
Fx. (206) 623-0965
E-mail: JGWebster@Mikkelborg.com
*Member of LawPact®, an international association of independent business law firms
In general there are no statutory requirements for watchstanding for uninspected fishing vessels or for processing crew on fish processing vessels. The recent decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Ili v American Seafoods Co., LLC, 2009 US App. LEXIS 2009 (9 Cir November 25, 2009), may change all that. In the future, risk management for the fishing fleet will have to assess the production gained by long working hours against the exposure to increased claims.
Enter keywords:
