{"id":7159,"date":"2020-04-01T02:55:27","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T23:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/u-s-supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-ship-owner-in-athos-i-safe-berth-case\/7159\/"},"modified":"2020-04-01T02:55:27","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T23:55:27","slug":"u-s-supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-ship-owner-in-athos-i-safe-berth-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/u-s-supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-ship-owner-in-athos-i-safe-berth-case\/7159\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Ship Owner in Athos I \u2018Safe Berth\u2019 Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court decision ultimately puts to rest the interpretation of the \u201csafe berth\u201d warranty under U.S. law.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The Tsakos-managed oil tanker Athos I was chartered by CITGO when it struck a uncharted nine-ton anchor while docking at CITGO facility in Paulsboro, New Jersey, puncturing the tanker\u2019s hull and spilling approximately 263,000 gallons of crude oil into the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Some hundreds of miles of shoreline were impacted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Cleanup costs amounting to $133 million was paid by Frescati Shipping Company under their OPA obligations, of which $88 million was reimbursed by the U.S. Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Coast Guard concluded in its <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Marine Casualty Report (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dco.uscg.mil\/Portals\/9\/DCO%20Documents\/5p\/CG-5PC\/INV\/docs\/documents\/AthosI.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Marine Casualty Investigation Report<\/a> that the cause of the incident was the abandoned anchor lying on the seabed, and there was no negligence or violation on the part of the ship\u2019s crew or embarked pilot. No fines or penalties were ever issued.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Frescati and the U.S. eventually sued CITGO and others (collectively CARCO) to recoup the costs, arguing that CARCO had breached the safe-berth clause by failing to designate a safe berth, and therefore was at fault for the spill.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Justice Sotomayor delivered the 5-2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/19pdf\/18-565_3d93.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"majority opinion (opens in a new tab)\">majority opinion<\/a> of the Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccording to Frescati and the United States, CARCO had breached a contractual \u201csafe-berth clause\u201d obligating CARCO to select a \u201csafe\u201d berth that would allow the Athos I<em> <\/em>to come and go \u201calways safely afloat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question before us is whether the safe-berth clause is a warranty of safety, imposing liability for an unsafe berth regardless of CARCO\u2019s diligence in selecting the berth. We hold that it is,\u201d wrote Justice Sotomayor.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe many years of effort, which have culminated in the decision, underscore our confidence in the rule of law while the Supreme Court\u2019s decision underlines the importance and significance of safe, well respected, understood and applied marine navigation practices, which have, for decades, safeguarded human life at sea, the protection and preservation of the marine environment as well as property,\u201d a statement from the ship owner said. <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court decision ultimately puts to rest the interpretation of the \u201csafe berth\u201d warranty under U.S. law.\u00a0 The Tsakos-managed oil tanker Athos I was chartered by CITGO when it struck a uncharted nine-ton anchor while docking at CITGO facility in Paulsboro, New Jersey, puncturing the tanker\u2019s hull and spilling approximately 263,000 gallons of crude &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[4010,3399,2050,1116,4009,2474,3460,2143,1070,1115],"class_list":["post-7159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-athos","tag-berth","tag-case","tag-court","tag-favor","tag-owner","tag-rules","tag-safe","tag-ship","tag-supreme"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/7160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}