United States v. Bethlehem Steel Corp.

This case presents the question whether a ship owner who by his negligence causes the ship to sink in a channel where it will, until removed, constitute an obstruction to navigation, is liable to the United States for the cost incurred by the United States in removing the ship from the channel.

On December 30, 1960, the ship S. S. Texmar of the appellee Bethlehem Steel Company grounded on a shoal in Grays Harbor, Washington. Attempts to free it were unsuccessful; the ship fractured and became a total loss, obstructing the ship channel. Bethlehem and the other appellee, Calmar Steamship Corporation, which was operating the ship under a bareboat charter from Bethlehem at the time of the ship’s grounding, sent certain communications to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and received responses from the Corps of Engineers. On January 13, 1960, the Corps of Engineers notified Bethlehem and Calmar that it was going to proceed to remove the ship from the channel and would charge the expense of doing so to Bethlehem and Calmar. It did so, and the United States says that the cost was in excess of $336,-000, after salvage.

Because of the claim of the United States for reimbursement,…

(concurring) .

I concur in the foregoing opinion, but I think that the case for affirmance is a little stronger than Judge MADDEN makes it appear.

I agree that such precedents as there are sustain the conclusion that at common law the liability here asserted did not exist. It follows that if there is any liability it must be based upon the statutes. My reading of those statutes leads me to believe that Congress, in enacting them, did put its mind on the question now before us and intended that the liability should be limited to whatever the United States can get for the vessel. It is true that section 409 states “it shall be the duty of the owner of such sunken craft to commence the immediate removal of the same, and prosecute such removal diligently, and failure to do so shall be considered as an abandonment of such craft, and subject the same to removal by the United States as provided for in sections 411-416, 418, and 502 of this title.” This clause follows the imposition of an obligation to mark the sunken vessel “until [it] * * * is removed or abandoned.” Thus, while the statute imposes the duty on the owner to remove, it also deals with what happens when he fails to…

(dissenting).

The relevant statutes are, indeed, “difficult to interpret in their application to our problem,” but a construction which affords the United States the remedy which it seeks is strongly suggested by United States v. Republic Steel Corp., 362 U.S. 482 , 80 S.Ct. 884 , 4 L.Ed.2d 903 (1960).

Appellees’ alleged conduct in negligently sinking a ship in a navigable channel concededly violated 33 U.S.C. § 409 . 1 *523 Section 409, like Section 403, reflects the interest of the United States in the unobstructed navigability of its waters. Republic Steel holds that to protect this interest an injunctive remedy must be implied against those who create unauthorized obstructions in violation of Section 403; therefore a like remedy is to be implied against those who voluntarily or carelessly sink vessels in navigable channels in violation of Section 409. Since the United States may by mandatory injunction impose the burden of removal upon one who sinks a ship in violation of Section 409, the government should not be denied restitution if it is compelled to assume the costs of removal by the refusal of the wrongdoer to discharge his duty. See Restatement, Restitution § 115…