Limar Shipping Ltd. v. United States

Facts

The M/T Limar, owned by D and operated by OMI, approached Boston, Massachusetts. Under Massachusetts law, foreign vessels the size of the M/T Limar must employ a harbor pilot when entering Boston Harbor. The M/T Limar took aboard a harbor pilot, Lawrence Cannon, who undertook navigation of the ship through the Boston Harbor shipping channel. Boston Harbor includes side-by-side inbound and outbound channels, which are maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps). In 1996, the Army Corps was authorized to dredge the Boston Harbor inbound channel to a depth of thirty-five feet below Mean Low Water and was also authorized to maintain the outbound channel at a depth of not more than forty feet. Both of these channels could be maintained up to 600 feet wide. The Army Corps conducts periodic surveys of the shipping channels to determine their actual depths, as opposed to the authorized depths, and to discover any unexpected debris or shoaling. The results of Survey Reports are made public and also part of the Coast Guard's Local Notice to Mariners publications. Relevant to this matter, the last periodic survey of the disputed area of the inbound channel was completed in 1990. The results of the 1990 Boston Harbor survey appeared in a Results of Survey Report dated July 23, 1990, and they were published in the First Coast Guard District's Local Notice to Mariners, Number 31, on August 1, 1990. In each of these sources, the 1990 survey reported the controlling depth of the channel, which is the shallowest point at any place as compared to Mean Low Water. Cannon, had twenty-four years of experience at the time of the grounding, knew these survey results, and did not bring a nautical chart with him. Although he had never been aboard the M/T Limar, he familiarized himself with the ship and asked the M/T Limar's crew for the draft of the ship before directing the ship through Boston Harbor. While Cannon piloted the vessel, the M/T Limar's crew observed the movement of the ship and plotted them on the M/T Limar's copy of Nautical Chart 13272, 43d Edition, dated June 28, 1995. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ('NOAA') created this chart using information from several sources, including the 1990 Army Corps survey. The M/T Limar scraped the Boston Harbor floor near Red Nunn Buoy No. 8. According to the nautical chart produced by NOAA, the water depths nearest to the position of the groundings are thirty-five and thirty-six feet, which allegedly should have accommodated the M/T Limar's thirty-three feet, nine-inch draft. The vessel grounded and cost P in excess of $800,000. P sued D under the Suits in Admiralty Act (SAA). The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the United States, finding that the discretionary function exception applied and that the United States was entitled to dismissal of the complaint on grounds of sovereign immunity.

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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