District Court News

Norwegian car shipping firm Wallenius Wilhelmsen estimates a $5 million to $10 million hit to core earnings from last week's U.S. Baltimore bridge collapse and expects the key ship channel to be closed for weeks, it said on Wednesday.The company said its vessel Carmen - which according to shipping data is among the biggest car carriers in its fleet - remained stuck in Baltimore's port, with the ship and its crew ready to sail as soon as the channel was reopened.Recovery teams opened a second channel enabling smaller vessels to navigate the Port of Baltimore on Tuesday…

A maritime industry recruiter has agreed to work with plaintiffs and share worker compensation data in a lawsuit accusing major U.S. shipbuilders of limiting employee mobility, marking the first settlement in the case.Attorneys for a proposed class of engineers and architects suing General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls Industries and other companies disclosed the settlement with Faststream Recruitment on Tuesday in Alexandria, Virginia federal court.The October lawsuit said the shipbuilders violated U.S.

2024 marks another year for development of a biennial WRDA bill—Water Resources Development Act, critical legislation for the Nation’s waterways, ports and harbors. WRDA encompasses a range of issues, from environmental regs to energy use to agriculture and, of course, a focus on projects critical for economic growth.Because these are dynamic and timely issues, Congress and the maritime sector like to keep WRDA on a two-year reauthorization timeline. Indeed, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, December and January, held three WRDA information hearings.

Exxon and Canada-based crude pipeline operator Enbridge were sued in Illinois federal court on Tuesday over claims they barred a competitor from building a terminal to ship oil by barge from the Chicago area to refineries in the Midwest and Gulf of Mexico.The antitrust lawsuit from energy infrastructure developer Ducere seeks more than $11 million in damages for work the Illinois company said it already paid for on the project and for lost future profits.Exxon, Enbridge and their…

This article examines 10 structural safeguards in Coast Guard Suspension and Revocation (S&R) Proceedings that ensure Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decisional independence. These safeguards separate potential agency influences from the ALJ decision making process and are critical to mariner due process and fundamental fairness. We will start with an overview of Coast Guard S&R proceedings, followed by brief discussions of the Administrative Procedure Act, Administrative Law Judges, and U.S. Office of Personnel Management oversight.

Environmental groups on Tuesday will ask a Norwegian court to block the development of three North Sea oil and gas fields, citing insufficient assessment of global climate impact from future petroleum use.The lawsuit filed by Greenpeace and its partner Nature and Youth concerns the Equinor-operated Breidablikk and Aker BP's Yggdrasil and Tyrving fields, which hold combined reserves of some 875 million barrels of oil equivalent.The two NGOs in 2020 lost a case against Arctic drilling at Norway's top court…

The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off the California coast in 2019, killing 34 people on board in one of the state's deadliest maritime disasters, was found guilty on Monday of a federal charge of seaman's manslaughter.Jerry Boylan, 70, was convicted by a U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles on a single charged count of "misconduct or neglect of a ship officer" under a federal homicide statute dating from steamboat accidents in the early 1800s.The felony conviction…

A U.S. judge has rejected challenges to federal environmental permits and construction approvals for a $4 billion offshore wind farm near Massachusetts, which commercial fishing groups have claimed will harm whales and impair their businesses.U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last Thursday tossed the final two federal district court lawsuits directly challenging the Vineyard Wind project roughly 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, which would be the first commercial…

South Korean authorities cited the risk of Chinese economic retaliation when they charged marine technology firm SI Innotec last year with violating trade laws for its work on Taiwan's new military submarine program, according to a police document seen by Reuters and two people familiar with the matter.In a Feb. 17, 2022, affidavit to a judge seeking the arrest of SI Innotec executive director Park Mal-sik, police said authorities feared a repeat of the sweeping sanctions imposed by Beijing in 2016, after Seoul decided to install THAAD, a U.S. anti-missile system.

Dutch shipbuilder Damen Shipyards has sued the Dutch government over damages it says it has suffered due to European sanctions against Russia.Damen, which produces a wide-ranging fleet of industrial and military vessels and luxury yachts, is seeking compensation for business lost due to the sanctions, company spokesman Rick van de Weg said, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg.Damen had delivery contracts for a number of vessels across the company's portfolio that were scrapped by the sanctions invoked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Van de Weg said.Damen had an engineer

The U.S. on Friday divulged it disrupted in April a multimillion-dollar shipment of crude oil by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, seizing more than 980,000 barrels of contraband crude oil that violated U.S. sanctions.In April, Reuters reported that the U.S. confiscated cargo onboard tanker Suez Rajan, which was carrying Iranian oil at sea. The U.S. statement on Friday confirmed and fleshed out details of the story which cited sources.The "illicit sale and transport of Iranian oil" violated sanctions targeting Iran, the U.S.

The insolvency of a major storage terminal planned in northwest Europe has supported regional tank storage rates for diesel and gasoline, just as European traders rush to fill up diesel tanks ahead of a Feb. 5 ban on Russian fuel.Earlier this month, the district court in Rotterdam declared the insolvency of the long-delayed HES Hartel Tank Terminal, to be developed in Europe's major trading port of Rotterdam.The terminal would have offered 1.3 million cubic metres of storage capacity for gasoline…

The U.S. has imposed a $2 million fine on the owner and operator of a bulk carrier that knowingly committed pollution crimes on the Mississippi River. Greek-based Empire Bulkers and related company Joanna Maritime were sentenced Thursday for committing "knowing and willful violations" of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and the Ports and Waterways Safety Act related to their role as the operator and owner of the bulk carrier Joanna.A March 2022 inspection of the…

A Norwegian naval officer on Monday denied negligence leading up to the 2018 collision between a warship he commanded and an oil tanker in which the military vessel sank. Building a replacement for the lost Helge Ingstad frigate would cost up to 13 billion crowns ($1.3 billion), the armed forces estimated in a 2019 report. The early-morning crash between the Ingstad and the fully loaded Sola TS crude carrier near a major North Sea oil export terminal also triggered shutdowns of parts of Norway's petroleum production. There was no leak from the oil tanker.

Norwegian Cruise Line must pay $110 million in damages for use of a port that Cuba's government confiscated in 1960, a U.S. judge ruled on Friday, a milestone for Cuban-Americans seeking compensation for Cold-War era asset seizures.The decision by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami follows her March ruling that the use of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by the plaintiff, Delaware-registered Havana Docks Corp."Judgment is entered in favor of Plaintiff Havana Docks Corporation and against Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings…

U.S. federal Maritime Commission Chairman Daniel B. Maffei announced Phillip C. “Chris” Hughey has been hired as the General Counsel of the Federal Maritime Commission and appointed to be a member of the Senior Executive Service.In his capacity as General Counsel to the Commission, Hughey will provide legal advice and recommendations to the Chairman and Commissioners on regulatory and policy matters. He will serve as a member of the agency’s senior management team and will also…

A South Korean court on Saturday issued arrest warrants for a former defense minister and a former coast guard chief over their alleged mishandling of the death of a state fishery ministry employee at the hands of North Korean troops two years ago.The decision by the Seoul Central District Court, which cited risks of them fleeing or destroying evidence, came days after the prosecutors on Tuesday filed for arrest warrants and follows an investigation by the government that showed…

Two Matson Inc subsidiaries must face claims from rival container shipping company American President Lines LLC that Matson is abusing its market power over service from the United States to Guam, a federal judge ruled in an antitrust lawsuit.The ruling Friday by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., declined to dismiss claims against Matson Navigation Company Inc and Matson Logistics Inc brought by American President Lines last year seeking unspecified monetary damages for alleged violations of U.S. competition law.The court dismissed parent company Matson Inc as a defendant.Honolulu-based Matson, a leading U.S. carrier in the Pacific, in 2021 recorded revenue of more than $3.9 billion.

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday vacated a lower court's decision to block the Biden administration's pause on new oil and gas leasing on federal land and waters - a key piece of the president's climate change strategy - and sent the case back to that court for further proceedings.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Louisiana district court decision to block the Interior Department's leasing pause after Louisiana and a dozen states sued the administration established…

A Texas oil company agreed to plead guilty to criminal negligence charges and pay nearly $13 million for a crude oil spill that killed wildlife and fouled southern California beaches, federal prosecutors said on Friday.Amplify Energy Corp repeatedly turned off and on a 17-mile-long subsea pipeline when it could not determine the location of the leak, according to plea agreements filed in U.S. District Court, Central District of California.The Houston-based company and two subsidiaries each agreed to plead guilty to one count of negligently discharging oil during the October 2021, incident. The pipeline was struck by a ship's anchor.The three firms "are required to make significant improvements that will help prevent future oil spills,” Acting United States Attorney Stephanie S.

Plagued by mosquitoes at night and marauding monkeys by day, ship captain Glenn Madoginog was held for months at an Indonesian naval base before ending up in a cramped prison cell, sleeping alongside convicted murderers and child rapists.The Filipino father of four was one of dozens of captains held at the Batam naval base after being arrested for anchoring in Indonesian waters without a permit while waiting to enter Singapore, according to a dozen people involved in the cases, including captains, ship owners, intermediaries and insurers.Most of the captains were freed after a few weeks once ship owners made unofficial payments to navy intermediaries of between $300…

A U.S. judge on Wednesday said the owner of an oil tanker must pay the United States $44.6 million over its role in a 2017 collision between the tanker with a U.S. Navy destroyer in southeast Asia that killed 10 sailors and injured dozens more.U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan found Energetic Tank Inc 20% responsible and the United States 80% responsible for the Aug. 21, 2017, collision between the 39,000 metric ton Alnic MCtanker and the USS John S. McCain.Both vessels had been cruising alongside each other when the McCain…

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday dismissed the criminal indictment against a dive boat captain charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people when the vessel caught fire and sank off the California coast three years ago.The 75-foot (23-meter) Conception caught fire while most of those onboard were sleeping, killing 33 passengers and a crew member. It is considered one of California’s worst maritime disasters.U.S. District Judge George Wu said in a ruling that the indictment…