Appellate News

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.

The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) represented by BMW Oracle Racing and the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), the Americas Cup defending champion, represented by Team Alinghi were entwined in a 2.5-year legal battle over multiple court cases, including hearings in the New York Supreme Court and the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, prior to the 33rd edition of the race, due to take place in 2010.The parties disagreed about the location, format, and restrictions on boat design, all of which were changed by the courts prior to the race.

The U.S. Navy accused a sailor of setting the 2020 fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard, but it refuses to release records in the case as the law requires.Despite a 2016 law requiring more transparency of court-martials, the U.S. Navy is refusing to release nearly all court documents in a high-profile case in which a sailor faces life in prison.Seaman Recruit Ryan Mays, 21, has been charged with aggravated arson and hazarding a vessel in the 2020 fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard.

The law governing marine insurance in the United States has long been a source of considerable confusion. And if there was once a clear set of principles applicable in such cases, the Supreme Court long ago muddied the waters with their infamous ruling in Wilburn Boat Co. v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., 348 U.S. 310 (1955). That case, involving a fire on a houseboat on an inland man-made lake on the Texas-Oklahoma border, established the “litmus test” for when maritime law should…

The Trump administration will push for a broad reset of “outdated tariff determinations” at the World Trade Organization to fix what it sees as years of unfair treatment of the United States, a top trade official told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the Geneva-based body was “a mess” and changes in the tariffs set by the Geneva-based WTO were urgently needed to better reflect current economic realities.“Many countries with large and developed economies maintain very high bound tariff rates…

The oceans are under siege, campaigners warn, and fish stocks could collapse unless a global deal is struck swiftly to ban harmful fisheries subsidies. The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, can't agree on who will head the committee to discuss the issue, according to sources close to the negotiations.More than 90 percent of fish stocks are at maximum sustainable levels or overfished, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and environmentalists say a subsidies…

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said it was time for the world's biggest economic powers to start talks on reshaping World Trade Organization rules to prevent current tensions spiraling into trade wars.Macron's comments before the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) came as the European Union faced less than 48 hours to win an exemption from U.S. tariffs on European aluminium and steel."This is about a complete update of global competition rules…

The European Union's trade chief described on Thursday the lack of a full trade accord between the bloc and the United States as ridiculous, but said the best that could be expected now was only a very modest agreement.Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom also rebuffed suggestions that the EU should simply seek to settle its differences over tariffs with the United States at the World Trade Organization, questioning whether the WTO's appeals process could survive in the longer term.EU leaders agreed last week to discuss opening their markets wider to U.S.

Maritime attorney David Russo provides a valuable primer for maritime stakeholders faced with a marine casualty. Because it isn’t a question of if, it is a question of when. Will you be ready? When there is a marine incident, the vessel owner/operator has two risks of exposure: to both civil and criminal liability. These risks can arise from a number of variables, including but not limited to (a.) a pollution event, (b.) a death or injury, (c.) unseaworthy vessels (including inadequate crew or procedures)…

The increasing automation of vessels is causing some mariners to lose basic maritime skills. During dinner on June 10, 1995, the last night before the cruise ship Royal Majesty was due to arrive in Boston from its voyage to Bermuda, the master bragged to the passengers at his table that his ship could never run aground because it had all the latest electronic equipment, including a navigation system that integrated the GPS signals and other information. At 2225 that night the ship grounded on the Rose and Crown Shoal near Nantucket. It was 17 miles west of its planned trackline.

The maritime community is no more immune from cyber threats than any other entity that relies on computers and the internet. The maritime industry, though, constitutes part of the world’s critical infrastructure. Thus, the consequences of a successful cyber-attack on a maritime entity could be far greater than a successful cyber-attack on, for instance, a bakery. Consequently, it is important that the maritime sector and its numerous constituents adopt reasonable measures to deter, detect, and recover from cyber-attacks. Currently, much of the world’s attention is focused on terrorism. Cyber-attacks by terrorists are a real threat and steps must be taken to counter them. More commonly, though, cyber-attacks are launched by criminals, nation-states, and corporate spies.

The World Trade Organization's Appellate Body ruled against the United States on Friday in a dispute with Mexico over tuna labelling, upholding an earlier ruling issued in April that found U.S. rules discriminated against Mexico. "The Appellate Body concludes that the United States has not brought its dolphin-safe labelling regime for tuna products into conformity with the recommendations and rulings of the (WTO's dispute settlement body)," the WTO's appeals judges said at the end of their 144-page ruling on the case. The appeal ruling is final, and could lead to Mexico making a claim for retaliation against U.S. exports if it believes the United States has not brought its rules into line with the WTO ruling.

Eurotunnel reluctantly sold to its subsidiary, the Calais-to-Dover ferry business, MyFerryLink the Danish DFDS, the competitor of the Channel Tunnel reports Le Monde. The company is a forced seller of the service because of antitrust action. It said it had wanted to sell the business to a workers' cooperative, SCOP SeaFrance, rather than to DFDS. "The group, regretting that SeaFrance SCOP did not have the necessary support to make a takeover offer, ads engaging accept the tender submitted by DFDS for leasing ships Berlioz and Rodin," the group said in a statement. On January 9, the British appellate court for Competition (Competition Appeal Tribunal) upheld the position of the authority of the British competition (competition and markets authority…

China lost an appeal at the World Trade Organization in a case brought by the United States, the European Union and Japan to challenge China's restrictions on exports of rare earths, according to a WTO Appellate Body ruling published on Thursday. "... China has not demonstrated that the export quotas that China applies to various forms of rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum by virtue of the series of measures at issue are justified ... " the document's conclusion said. China produces more than 90 percent of the world's rare earths, which are key elements in defence industry components and modern technology from iPhones and disk drives to wind turbines. It imposed strict export quotas in 2010, saying it was trying to curtail pollution and preserve resources.

China failed to overturn a U.S. law targeting unfair trade subsidies on Monday, when the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body said it did not have enough information to uphold China's appeal against an earlier WTO ruling. China had claimed that the U.S. "Public Law 112-99", also known as the GTX legislation, which was signed by President Barack Obama in March 2012, broke world trade rules, but a WTO dispute panel ruled against it in March. The Appellate Body disagreed with…

Even the safest, most careful marine operator will, at some point in time, have an accident aboard one of their vessels. And, despite the best of intentions, sometimes employees gets hurt. Once an employee is injured, the likelihood of employee filing a lawsuit because of it, especially on Jones Act tonnage, becomes a real possibility. The effective management and outcome of such a case lies in preparing for litigation. An understanding of how personal injury litigation under the Jones Act works will help you position your company for a positive outcome – or in other words…

K&L Gates LLP welcomes Michael D. Bryan and Julius H. “Sam” Hines as partners in the corporate/M&A & commercial disputes practices respectively. Bryan joins K&L Gates from Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, where he chaired the firm’s sustainable energy group, while Hines arrives from Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP, where he was a leader of the firm’s admiralty and maritime practice group. A maritime lawyer and proctor in admiralty, Hines assists shipping clients in investigating and handling marine incidents such as oil spills…

Looper Reed & McGraw is pleased to announce the addition of Julia Palmer and Carrie Weitinger as Members and Shannon Thorne and Monika Moore as Associates to its Houston office. The addition of these four attorneys has added great depth to the firm's Admiralty, Onshore and Offshore Energy and Insurance Law Practices. Julia M. (Adams) Palmer, formerly Julia M. Adams, is an active member of the admiralty and energy bar. Her practice focuses on the representation of marine and energy interests, insurers, and insurance brokers.

John K. Fulweiler, Esq. assumes Chair of the American Salvage Association's (ASA) Membership Committee. A Proctor-in-Admiralty, John is excited about the opportunity of continuing to support and contribute to the ASA's endeavors. John is the managing member of Fulweiler llc, a maritime law firm practicing in various East Coast jurisdictions in the United States. Formerly a partner in a New York maritime law firm, John K. Fulweiler graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a Marine Affairs degree and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. He is a licensed merchant mariner and served as a staff captain with a New England towing and salvage firm prior to law school.

Skye Maritime, a provider of counter-piracy embarked security guards, appoints Ben Smith to its management team. Ben served for 15 years in the British Army as a Special Operations reservist; he was also an attorney in the UK, appearing in the UK equivalent of District, Military and Appellate courts in over 2000 cases. From 2008 Ben served in Afghanistan and Iraq as a counter-insurgency operator and close protection specialist. His appointments included patrol medic and sharpshooter. He regularly delivers hostile environment training and threat briefings to major US and UK news networks, and still delivers weapons and tactics training to law enforcement, military and civilians as a consultant firearms instructor.

Convictions have been obtained for false entries in garbage record books and ballast water management records. What’s Next? Some years ago, I wrote an article lamenting the fraudulent entries made in many oil record books and the increasing use of those entries as signed confessions in the prosecution of ship owners and operators and senior shipboard personnel (particularly chief engineers) for making false statements to the US Coast Guard. Oil record books are required records on commercial vessels and must be presented to Coast Guard boarding officers on demand.

The recent dispute between Odyssey Marine Exploration and the Kingdom of Spain over the treasure and artifacts Odyssey recovered from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes has recently been given considerable coverage in the popular press as well as in the maritime press. This has probably reinforced the belief of some people that marine salvage, by definition, is the recovery of sunken treasure. Actually, of course, that is only a small component of marine salvage. It has nonetheless…

The Bisso Doctrine takes its name from the 1955 U.S. Supreme Court case, Bisso v. Inland Waterways Corp., in which it was established in a majority opinion of the Court that exculpatory clauses in towing contracts are invalid as a matter of public policy. That decision has had serious impact on the United States towing industry, and has affected decisions on whether to make U.S. choice of law and forum applicable to towing contracts where there were other options. It nonetheless remains the law of the land.