Deep Sea Research, Inc. v. Brother Jonathan

Appellee Deep Sea Research (“DSR”) brought this in rem admiralty action seeking salvage rights and title to the wreck of the Brother Jonathan, a double paddle wheel steamer that sank in 1865 off the coast of Crescent City, California. After nineteen years of searching, DSR claims to have discovered the Brother Jonathan and has stipulated for the purposes of these proceedings that it is located upon submerged lands of the State of California. The State of California intervened for the limited purpose of asserting that it has a colorable claim of ownership to the wreck and that as a result, the district court is barred by the Eleventh Amendment from adjudicating DSR’s claim.

The State argues that it has a colorable claim to. ownership under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 (“ASA”), 43 U.S.C. §§ 2101-2106 , the Submerged Lands Act (“SLA”), Chs. 65, 67 Stat. 29 (1953) (codified in relevant parts at 43 U.S.C. §§ 1311-1315 ), *683 and Cal.Pub.Res.Code § 6313. After an evi-dentiary hearing, the district court held that the State had failed to establish a colorable claim to ownership and rejected its motion to. dismiss the claim. Deep Sea Research, Inc. v. Brother Jonathan, 883…