Francis Faraola v. Jack O'Neill and the Yacht Marie Celine

Appellant Francis Faraola instituted this maritime action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California seeking to recover damages from the appellees, the yacht MARIE CELINE and its owner Jack O’Neill. Appellant contends that the IOV2 months he was required to spend in a Mexican jail came about by reason of the unseaworthiness of the MARIE CELINE and abandonment. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of appellees. This appeal followed. We affirm.

In the spring of 1975, appellee Jack O’Neill enlisted the appellant and his brother to come to Acapulco, Mexico to help his children Mike and Shawn O’Neill sail his yacht, the MARIE CELINE, back to Santa Cruz, California. On the third day of a stop at Cabo San Lucas — a small Mexican port in Baja, California — the appellant, who claims he was a crewman and not a guest, was smoking marijuana aboard the vessel with two American girls; other members of the crew had gone ashore. Unfortunately for the appellant, around noon that day, Mexican authorities, who were inspecting vessels in the harbor, boarded the MARIE CELINE and seized a plastic bag containing marijuana. (Appellant had the bag in his…