Ventura Packers, Inc. v. F/V Jeanine Kathleen

Ventura Packers, Inc. (“Ventura Packers”) sued in rem three fishing vessels, the F/V Jeanine Kathleen, the F/V Rose Lee, and the F/V Talia (“the Ships”), to enforce a necessaries lien. On the Ships’ motion for summary judgment, the district court dismissed the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

Ventura Packers appealed. We have jurisdiction over its timely appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We hold that the Federal Maritime Lien Act, 46 U.S.C. § 31342 , establishes statutory elements, which if met, invoke the admiralty jurisdiction of the federal courts. As Ventura Packers established a triable issue of fact regarding whether it met these jurisdictional elements, we reverse the district court’s dismissal of its complaint and remand the case for additional proceedings.

BACKGROUND

In an effort to create economies of scale unavailable to individual anglers, several commercial fishermen banded together to form the Independent Fishermen’s Cooperative (“IFC”), incorporated in Alaska by Gregory Kirsch (“Kirsch”). IFC’s founding members included Dennis Eames, owner of the F/V Talia, Roger Ingman, co-owner with his wife Jody Ingman of the F/V Jeanine Kathleen, and…