January 2010

Winter… Part Two.  A Florida newspaper is reporting an environmental challenge to the Navy's training area off the east coast of Florida. 

Per the article,

A dozen environmental groups filed suit today to stop a U.S. Navy plan to build its $100 million Undersea Warfare Training Range about 50 miles east of Jacksonville, near known calving grounds for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The legal challenge alleges that the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to study the impacts that building and operating the range would have on right whales.

They fear the sonar used at the range could damage to the giant mammals’ ability to navigate, increasing the risk of beaching and death as they migrate and calve along Florida’s east coast — including the Space Coast — primarily in January and February.

 

An association long line fishermen has filed suit in federal court in Hawaii against the National Marine Fisheries Service, alleging the agency has not authorized the incidental taking of humpback whales in Hawaiian waters.

The Complaint (filed Jan. 22, 2010) is posted here.here. The Complaint summarizes the lawsuit:

1. This civil action is

…

The Ninth Circuit just published a decision on Rule B attachment and plaintiff's burden to establish prima facie evidence of its contract claims to withstand a motion to vacate the attachment.  Non-admiralty wonks can stop reading here.

In Equatorial Marine Fuel Management Services Pte Ltd. v. MISC Berhad, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals…

We had earlier posted about the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to hear that case of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha v. Regal-Beliot Corp., Docket No. 08-1553 and Union Pacific Railroad Co., v. Regal-Beliot Corp., Docket No. 08-1554.  For you non-admiralty wonks, this case is about the interplay between federal law governing liability for cargo transported…