United States Ninth Circuit

Dismissal of an action brought by plaintiffs, a crew of an Ecuadorian fishing boat that was searched and towed by the U.S. Coast Guard, is: 1) vacated in part, where on the evidence submitted by the parties, reciprocity with Ecuador exists, the government's waiver of sovereign immunity was not barred by the reciprocity requirement, and under the facts here, the government's waiver of sovereign immunity is not barred to the extent that it may have violated its non-discretionary policy of paying damages to the owner of the boat; but 2) affirmed in part, where to the extent that plaintiffs' claims fell outside the non-discretionary duty to pay damages, their claims were barred by the discretionary function exception.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/25/2013
• Published 09/25/2013

Judges

• GRABER

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel