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Maritime Law: Great Decision on Limits to USCG Authority on Bonds Gets Reversed


In Angelex Ltd. v. United States, Docket No. 13-1610 (4th Cir. Jul. 22, 2013), the government appealed the district court's order which altered the terms of a bond the Coast Guard had fixed for the release of a detained ship that was under investigation and restricted the types of penalties the government could seek for the ship's potential violations of certain ocean pollution prevention statutes. The ship at issue, M/V PAPPADAKIS, an ocean-going bulk cargo carrier carrying a shipment of coal to Brazil, was detained by the Coast Guard because the vessel had allegedly been discharging bilge water overboard. The appellate court reversed and remanded for dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), where the matter was not subject to review in the district court because the Coast Guard's actions were committed to agency discretion by law. Consequently, the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider the petition.

I have the original decision from the District Court, which is a pretty incredible decision. It is worth reading the District Court opinion along with the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Fourth Circuit decision so you can follow the reasoning.

If you are interested in receiving a copy of either decision, please feel free to contact me at mov@chaloslaw.com.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 11, 2013 at 5:27 AM

    Thanks for all of these posts. I like the guidelines you've laid out here. Thanks for sharing us.
    Maritime Law | Marine Law

    ReplyDelete

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