Willamette-Western Corporation v. Columbia Pacific Towing Company

Columbia-Pacific [hereinafter C-P] appeals from a portion of the District Court’s judgment, allowing Willamette-Western [hereinafter W-W] to recover damages for injuries allegedly caused by C-P’s employees to property belonging to W-W. C-P contends that since the insurers of the property paid W-W for the bulk of its losses, neither W-W nor the insurers can recover this payment from C-P. In the circumstances of this case, we are persuaded that C-P is correct, and we therefore reverse, in part, the District Court’s judgment, 326 F.Supp. 851 .

W-W owned a floating crane barge, the Atlas, which it had chartered to the Commission of Public Docks of Portland, Oregon. Although the Atlas was fully insured under a hull subscription policy obtained and maintained by the Commission, the charter agreement was not exclusive. W-W was permitted to put the Atlas to other uses when the vessel was not needed by the Commission. Pursuant to this authority, W-W chartered the Atlas, with a small crew to C-P on an hourly basis for a barge loading operation. Shortly after the loading was completed, the newly laden barge capsized, damaging both the Atlas and the dolphins to which it was…