Maritime Law
Our maritime law specialists have over 50 years of experience and have been involved in litigation in all aspects of maritime law, including Jones Act defense, ship collision and allision, marine pilot defense, cargo loss and damage, oil pollution under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA ’90) and the Clean Water Act, chartering and breach of charter, preferred ship mortgages and marine insurance both in coverage and defense.Members of the firm have represented shipowners, cargo interests and marine insurers in all types of cases, including handling the cargo claim arising when the chemical tanker Puerto Rican exploded and her stern section sank off the entrance to San Francisco Bay. A full recovery was obtained by our maritime specialist for the client cargo owner, Chevron Chemical Company. Further, in representing underwriters of the Martin Higgins sunk by the President Grant in a collision in dense fog in the San Francisco entrance channel, our attorney made an 85% recovery for the client after trial (15% fault was found on the part of Higgins) together with approximate 20% prejudgment interest. Then there was the highly publicized mysterious loss with her entire crew of the fishing vessel Jack Jr. in heavy fog off Pt. Reyes, where our attorney represented the hull and P&I insurers of the vessel. After her operators shouted a May Day broadcast, no vessel reported a collision to USCG, so it became necessary to prove which of the five vessels in the vicinity ran Jack Jr. down. The tanker Golden Gate, after much evasion, was proved to be the culprit during a month long USCG investigatory hearing. The underwriter client obtained a 100% recovery for its losses.
In the first case brought under OPA ’90, our firm represented the company furnishing bunkers in Los Angeles harbor to the Sammi Superstars, a South Korean freighter. During the bunkering operation, the ship spilled fuel oil into Los Angeles Harbor while taking on bunkers from the client’s fuel oil barge. At issue were more than $16 million in claims for clean-up costs and third party claims. The bunker supplier paid only $250,000 in settlement, only half of what underwriters had approved. Finally, we should mention the allision in dense fog of the large container ship Cosco Busan with the fendering system around one of the towers of the Oakland Bay Bridge, resulting in the spilling of some 50,000 gal. of fuel oil. We represent the ship’s pilot and the matter, involving some $60,000,000 in claimed damages, has yet to be resolved.
