Liability, awards and settlements

8.2, New Delhi Express, legal action

US: Seaspan Ship Management and Seaspan Corporation, owners of fully cellular containership New Delhi Express , sued the US government over an April 2006 grounding in Kill Van Kull, blaming the mishap on inaccurate charts and an out-of-position buoy. The $3.0mn lawsuit was filed a week earlier in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Seaspan’s behalf by the maritime law firm of Chalos, O’Connor & Duffy. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff charged that the vessel grounding occurred because the ship was relying on Bergen Point Lighted Buoy 14 while making a turn in heavy fog. The suit alleges that, “unbeknownst to the master, compulsory docking pilot or to the plaintiff”, the buoy was some 25 yards away from its charted position and that the pilot and crew relied on the charts. The suit specifically blames the US Coast Guard, which maintains the buoy, and the National Ocean Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which maintains charts for the area.