South Port Marine, LLC v. Gulf Oil Ltd. Partnership

234 F.3d 58, 2001 A.M.C. 609, 31 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20344, 51 ERC (BNA) 1749, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 31178, 2000 WL 1774116
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedDecember 7, 2000
Docket99-2369, 99-2370
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 234 F.3d 58 (South Port Marine, LLC v. Gulf Oil Ltd. Partnership) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
South Port Marine, LLC v. Gulf Oil Ltd. Partnership, 234 F.3d 58, 2001 A.M.C. 609, 31 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20344, 51 ERC (BNA) 1749, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 31178, 2000 WL 1774116 (1st Cir. 2000).

Opinion

TORRUELLA, Chief Judge.

This appeal, which arises out of a February 1997 gasoline spill in Maine’s Portland Harbor, requires us to interpret both historic and contemporary maritime law in the United States. On the one hand, ap-pellees present a Seventh Amendment argument that involves the state of federal admiralty jurisdiction in the early days of the Constitution. Appellant, on the other hand, raises questions of federal preemption and statutory interpretation in relation to two issues of much current interest: oil spills and punitive damages. Finally, both parties dispute the sufficiency of evidence presented to the jury on various aspects of appellant’s alleged damages.

We conclude that the district court’s disposition of these issues must be affirmed in part and reversed in part.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

A. The Parties

Appellant South Port Marine, LLC, (“South Port”) is a family-owned marina located on a cove in Portland Harbor, Maine. The marina is principally designed to accommodate recreational motor and sailing vessels by allowing them to tie up to floating dock segments that are connected with fixed docks leading to the marina’s onshore facilities. The floating dock segments are identical in function and purpose to ordinary fixed docks, but are designed in sections with Styrofoam flotation which allows them to rise and fall with the tides.

In the winter of 1996-1997, South Port’s owners planned to dredge the marina and parts of the surrounding cove to allow access by larger boats. The owners also intended to increase the number of slips in the marina from approximately one hundred to closer to one hundred and twenty-five.

Appellee Gulf Oil is a Massachusetts-based petroleum company. It operates a distribution facility on Portland Harbor where, inter alia, petroleum products such as gasoline are pumped into barges for transportation to other ports. Appellee Boston Towing and Transportation operates tug boats and tank barges for the purpose of oil transportation. Gulf Oil was pumping gasoline into a barge owned and operated by Boston Towing at the time of the incident involved in this appeal.

B. The February 5,1997 Spill

In the early morning hours of February 5, 1997, a Boston Towing tank barge was *61 tied to the Gulf Oil pier in Portland Harbor, while a crew member transferred gasoline from a Gulf onshore storage facility into individual tanks on the barge. The gasoline transfer process required the crew member to monitor the filling of each tank and to manually switch the flow of gasoline to the next empty tank when the prior tank reached its full capacity.

Sometime after 2:00 a.m. in the morning, under severe weather conditions, the crew member assigned to monitor the gas flow left the barge and boarded a nearby tug boat, leaving the gasoline transfer completely unattended. While the crew member was absent, the gasoline overflowed the recipient tank and subsequently overflowed the barge’s safety transom, flowing into Portland Harbor. Between 23,000 and 30,000 gallons of gasoline spilled into the water.

A large portion of the spilled gas entered the cove on which South Port Marine is located, and by 8:00 a.m. two to three inches of gasoline floated on the surface of the water at the marina. The Styrofoam flotation of the dock segments began to disintegrate, causing the docks to sink, list, and in many cases, fully submerge. As this happened, a number of electrical posts (at least some of which were apparently awaiting installation) fell off the docks and into the water.

C. Alleged Effects of the Spill on South Port Marine

At trial, South Port alleged damages falling into three general categories: extensive property damage, lost profits, and “other economic losses” including loss of goodwill and business stress. The spill allegedly destroyed between sixty and eighty Styrofoam floats and severely damaged forty-five dock segments. According to South Port, the repair and cleanup of this damage was both costly and, at a critical time in its development, very time-consuming. South Port further alleged that the spill set back its dredging plan an entire year and put the construction of new slips on indefinite hold due to the cash flow crisis caused by the accident and the diversion of South Port’s employees from gainful work to cleanup and repair tasks. South Port claimed the economic injury caused by the spill eventually forced it to restructure its debt and threatened its owners’ entire investment of almost $1,000,000.

D. Procedural History

On January 14, 1998, South Port filed a complaint in federal district court raising claims under the federal Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA”) and asserting several state common law tort actions. The complaint demanded trial by jury on all claims. Appellants argued that South Port was not entitled to a jury trial because its claims sounded in admiralty. The court initially reserved judgment on that issue and proceeded to try the case before a jury.

On April 7, 1999, the first day of trial, appellees conceded liability under the OPA in response to questioning from the court. However, the court then ruled that South Port’s state common law claims (which included strict liability, negligence, private nuisance, and trespass) were barred by Maine law, see Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 38, § 551(2)(D) (West 1999); see also Portland Pipe Line Corp. v. Envtl. Improvement Comm’n, 307 A.2d 1, 40 (Me.1973), because South Port failed to bring its state law claims under Maine’s Oil Pollution statute, which displaces state .common -law claims. The court also decided that punitive damages were unavailable under the OPA.

On April 16, 1999, the jury returned a verdict in favor of South Port. The jury awarded South Port $181,964 in damages for injury to property, $110,000 for lost profits, and $300,000 for injury to good will and business stress. After the jury' verdict, appellees renewed their motion for judgment as a matter of law, moved for a new trial, and also renewed their challenge to appellant’s right to trial by jury.

*62 The district court denied appellees’ challenge to the jury trial in an order and opinion issued July 27, 1999. The motions for judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial, however, were granted in part and denied in part by order and opinion issued October 14, 1999. The court held that the evidence presented to the jury was insufficient as a matter of law to support the award of damages for lost profits and other economic loss and reduced the jury’s award by $395,000. Ruling in the alternative in case its decision should be overturned on appeal, the court also granted appellees’ motion for a new trial unless appellant would agree to a remittitur of $100,000.

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234 F.3d 58, 2001 A.M.C. 609, 31 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20344, 51 ERC (BNA) 1749, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 31178, 2000 WL 1774116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/south-port-marine-llc-v-gulf-oil-ltd-partnership-ca1-2000.