Bultema Dock & Dredge Co. v. Thompson

252 F. Supp. 881, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7989
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Michigan
DecidedApril 4, 1966
DocketCiv. A. No. 4466
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 252 F. Supp. 881 (Bultema Dock & Dredge Co. v. Thompson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bultema Dock & Dredge Co. v. Thompson, 252 F. Supp. 881, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7989 (W.D. Mich. 1966).

Opinion

FOX, District Judge.

This is an action by libelant to recover for damages resulting when respondent steamship collided with an underwater construction project maintained by libel-ant at a power plant dock on Lake Maca-tawa, Holland, Michigan.

Jurisdiction is founded on 28 U.S.C. § 1333, and the action is brought pursuant to the Admiralty Jurisdiction Extension Act, being 48 U.S.C. § 740.

By contract dated January 17, 1962, libelant undertook to construct a 360 foot extension of the power plant dock, to extend southwesterly of the existing structure. The contract states, under heading “GC 29 Laws and Ordinances:

The contractor shall at all times observe and comply with all ordinances, laws and regulations * * *.
All permits and licenses required in the prosecution of any and all parts of the work shall be obtained and paid for by the contractor.”

The Federal permit obtained by the City of Holland for the project states:

(h) That if the display of lights and signals on any work hereby authorized is not otherwise provided for by law, such lights and signals as may be prescribed by the U. S. Coast Guard, shall be installed and maintained by and at the expense of the owner.
(i) That the permittee shall notify the said district engineer at what time the work will be commenced, and as far in advance of the time of commencement as the said district engineer may specify, and shall also notify him promptly, in writing, of the commencement of work, suspension of work, if for a period of more than one week, resumption of work, and its completion.

(The engineer referred to in (i) is the District Engineer, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

The purpose of this written notice is to enable the Corps of Engineers to issue special advisory bulletins to navigation interests, or to notify the U. S. Coast Guard, which in turn places the information in Notices to Mariners. Both of these publications are regularly issued, containing notice of obstructions, work projects, and other such matters which are of importance to maritime navigation.

The District Engineer was never notified of this project, and no notice of the project appeared in either special advisory bulletins of the Corps of Engineers, or the Notices to Mariners of the U. S. Coast Guard prior to the date of this accident.

Construction of the project began in the spring of 1962.

Respondent, the Steamship David P. Thompson, delivered cargoes of coal to the power plant dock on May 28, June 26, and August 3, 1962. The ship’s master on June 26 and August 3 was Captain Albert Guddeck, now deceased. The [883]*883second mate on board the Thompson was with her on all three occasions.

On June 26, sheet steel piling had been installed the length of the project, and extended out of the surface of the water, away from shore, to a height of about three feet along its entire distance. On both this occasion and May 28, the Thompson arrived and departed during daylight hours.

By August 3, the wall was submerged, and wooden stakes, two by fours, were placed along the wall to mark joints and to mark the project itself. These stakes projected out of the water, two to five feet, and marked the line of the project.

At all times there was construction equipment about, including a 93 by 32 foot barge carrying a 40-ton crawler crane. On the night in question, this barge was moored about half way down the uncompleted project, with lights placed at its outboard corners.

On the night of August 3, the ship arrived at the dock at about 10:00 P.M. and finished unloading at 1:20 A.M., August 4. Because of the presence of the barge, the stern of the Thompson projected outward into Lake Macatawa at a slight angle, since the stern overlapped the barge to some extent.

The turning basin in Lake Macatawa is diamond shaped, and as the Thompson backed away from the dock and into the turning basin, the wind, together with the tendency of a single screw vessel like the Thompson to back to port, carried her north and west, out of the limits of the turning basin. The Thompson’s seacocks began to clog with mud, and the only alternative available to the master was to bring the Thompson toward the shore below the existing dock, preparatory to winding the vessel, that is, once again turning the stern down into the turning basin by first running the stem of the ship into the muddy shore, working around with engine and rudder until the stern once again was directed into the good water of the turning basin, and then backing out until able to come about.

This maneuver was effected twice, and the Thompson then successfully proceeded down the channel into Lake Michigan.

However, on the first occasion the bow stopped some distance from the shoreline and the lookout, the second mate, heard a crunching noise which he thought to be a submerged clump of pilings. For the first time he noticed libelant’s row of stakes protruding from the water.

The next morning libelant’s workmen discovered extensive damage to the construction, and this suit to recover damages is the result.

It is the claim of libelant that the Thompson was negligent in so backing and turning as to strike libelant’s dock extension facility.

It is the claim of the respondent that the Thompson was not guilty of any negligence, and that libelant was in fact negligent in failing to properly mark the project and in stationing its barge in such a way as to force the Thompson to execute the backing and turning maneuver which led to the collision.

It is undisputed that the waters of Lake Macatawa are navigable waters of the United States. The right to navigate over such waters extends from shoreline to shoreline. Pioneer Steamship Co. v. United States, 176 F.Supp. 140 (D.C.E.D.Wis.1959).

As to liability, the court is presented with a factual determination, and after a consideration of the record and briefs, finds negligence on the part of both li-belant and respondent.

“ ‘Negligence’ at sea does not differ, in principle, from ‘negligence’ ashore. It is an elastic and open-textured concept, defined as the correlative of the equally vague standard of ‘due care;’ ‘good’ or ‘prudent’ seamanship sometimes appears as a synonym.” Gilmore and Black, The Law of Admiralty, p. 420 (1957).

Libelant avers that the presence of the barge, with lights on the outboard corners, sufficiently indicated the presence of the project to establish neg[884]*884ligence on the part of the Thompson in striking the construction. The simple answer to this is that the lights on the barge could as easily have been intended for the barge’s identification, and the location of the barge, if at all connected with an underwater construction project, could have been taken as the limits of the construction.

Respondent alleges that the location of the barge in itself caused the master of the Thompson to resort to the manner of turning which he did, and when the seacocks began to clog in the shallow water, he was presented with a maritime emergency.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
252 F. Supp. 881, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7989, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bultema-dock-dredge-co-v-thompson-miwd-1966.