Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
US Maritime Law
Martin Davies *
CASES
285. Avena (In re) 1
Suits in Admiralty Act—immunity from liability for US Coast Guard search and rescue operations
A deckhand on the conch fishing vessel Conch’rd died after the vessel capsized, throwing him and the other occupant (Avena, the owner and commercial operator of the vessel) into freezing water. Federal law requires fishing vessels to have an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) and to register it with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The registration of Conch’rd’s EPIRB had expired in 2017, and it bore the name of a different vessel, Gold Rush II. The EPIRB sent a distress signal to the US Coast Guard. The Coast Guard sent an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast (UMIB) to all vessels in the area, stating that Gold Rush II was in distress. The Coast Guard called the owner of Gold Rush II, who confirmed that the EPIRB was no longer on Gold Rush II. After a second call, the owner of Gold Rush II told the Coast Guard that the EPIRB was now on Conch’rd. The Coast Guard then promptly corrected its UMIB. After learning the exact location of the EPIRB, the Coast Guard sent a boat and a helicopter in the direction of the signal. The owner of Gold Rush II also sent some of his acquaintances in a sport fishing boat to the location. The acquaintances and the helicopter arrived nearly 90 minutes after Conch’rd had capsized. They pulled Avena from the water, but the deckhand had drowned nearly 20 minutes earlier.
The deckhand’s estate filed a maritime tort claim against the United States, alleging that it had negligently undertaken the search-and-rescue mission. The US District Court for the District of New Jersey dismissed the claim for want of subject matter jurisdiction because the United States was immune from suit, as the plaintiff’s claims fell outside the government’s waiver of sovereign immunity in the Suits in Admiralty Act.2 The plaintiff appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Decision: Affirmed; appeal dismissed.
Held: (1) The Suits in Admiralty Act waives the federal government’s immunity from civil actions in admiralty if the action could be maintained against a private person in like
* DCL (Oxon); Niels F Johnsen Chair in Maritime Law and Director, Maritime Law Center, Tulane University Law School, New Orleans.
1. (2024) 92 F 4th 473 (3d Cir).
2. 46 USC ss 30901–30918.
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