Texas and Alaska Join Florida Lawsuit Against the CDC
May 24th, 2021 — by Betsy Lee Montague — Category: AdmiraltyCOVID-19
In early April 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seeking to enjoin the federal government from enforcing the CDC’s operating restrictions on cruise ships, specifically for the purpose of accelerating the cruise industry’s domestic reopening.
Open for Business: Florida Legislature Seeks to Reverse Recent Key West Cruise Ship Ban
March 31st, 2021 — by Blake Tims — Category: Admiralty
Nearly 400 cruise ships and one million passengers visited Key West, Florida in 2018-2019. While the ships and passengers provide economic benefits to the city, residents and local government officials worry about their environmental impacts. On November 3, 2020, residents of Key West voted on three initiatives that would essentially ban large cruise ships from entering ports in Key West.
U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Whether Safe-Berth Clause Establishes Warranty of Safety
March 12th, 2021 — by Blake Tims — Category: Admiralty
In 2004, a 748-foot oil tanker known as the M/T Athos I collided with a nine-ton anchor that had been left on the bed of the Delaware River, causing approximately 264,000 gallons of heavy crude oil to spill into the river. The owner of the vessel, Frescati Shipping (Frescati), and the federal government sought reimbursement of cleanup costs from the sub-charterer, Citgo Asphalt Refining Company and Others (CARCO).
In October of 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposed rule establishing standards for incidental discharges from vessels in waters of the United States. This is the first proposed rule to come out of the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA), which was signed into law by President Trump in December 2018.
On March 14, 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a No Sail Order (NSO) for cruise ships in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than seven months later, the agency has announced that it will allow the ban to expire at the end of October. The CDC has replaced the NSO with a framework that takes a phased approach to resuming passenger cruise ship operations in US waters.
After a man drowned in the Santa Barbara Harbor while using a rented stand-up paddleboard (SUP), his survivors filed a wrongful death and survival action against the company and its owner in California state court. The rental company then filed an admiralty action in federal court seeking to limit its liability to the value of the SUP. The district court dismissed the admiralty action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit agreed.
