United States Fifth Circuit

In an action in which the United States sought to bring a personal liability claim under the Wreck Act for removal of a sunken drydock, a judgment lifting and modifying an injunction to allow the liability claim to proceed is affirmed where: 1) the government could state a personal liability claim under the Wreck Act for the recovery of its actual cost of removing a sunken vessel from a navigable waterway without alleging that the vessel owner negligently caused the sinking; and 2) the Limitation of Liability Act did not apply to limit the recovery by the government of wreck removal costs under the Wreck Act.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/25/2008
• Published 08/25/2008

Judges

• DENNIS, Circuit Judge:, Before WIENER, BARKSDALE, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert H. Murphy (argued), Peter Brooks Sloss, Murphy, Rogers, Sloss & Gambel, New Orleans, LA, for Petitioner-Appellant., Michelle Terry Delemarre (argued), Bruce Allan Ross, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC, for U.S.