Proctor in Admiralty

Connecticut Maritime Association - Shipping 2009

I just returned from the Connecticut Maritime Association (CMA) Shipping 2009 conference in Stamford, Connecticut.  What a great show.  There wwere more than 2000 industy professionals in attendance and I got to spend time with a lot of interesting people and check out a lot of products and services for owners, operators and even lawyers.  This meeting of maritime heavyweights will have a place in my calendar annually.

U.S Court of Appeals Rules in Favor of ATA

Lat Friday, March 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the American Trucking Association in the ongoing battle with the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach over their controversial concession plan.

The Court stated in part, "motor carriers should not be required to adhere to the various unconstitutional provisions in the Ports' (concession) agreements, and are likely to suffer irrevocably if forced to do that or give up their businesses," 

Truckinginfo.com reported as follows:

"We are extremely pleased with the decision," says Robert Digges Jr., ATA Vice President and Chief Counsel. "The judges understood that most of the elements of the Plans are not about safety, but rather are a regulatory effort by the Ports to create what they believe would be a more efficient drayage system."

As of Oct. 1, 2008, any motor carrier out of compliance with a Port's Concession agreement had been barred from entering that Port, a situation that caused motor carriers to suffer both short and long-term capital losses and injuries to business goodwill, ATA alleged.

The Court of Appeal's instructions to the District Court made clear that many elements of the Concession Plans must be enjoined, but leaves it to the District Court as to whether the entire Concession Plans should be halted, according to ATA.

The Court of Appeals indicated one aspect that must be enjoined is the Port of Los Angeles' ban on owner-operators. "That requirement is dead," said Curtis Whalen, executive director of the Intermodal Motor Carrier Conference of the ATA. The Port of Long Beach Concession Plan did not ban owner-operators.

The Court of Appeals decision said it would not entertain any petition for rehearing, although the Ports could appeal to the Supreme Court.

"Our Clean Truck Program is reducing toxic port truck pollution at an accelerated pace, and today's ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals does not challenge the truck ban schedule or truck fees that are helping us successfully battle this health crisis," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a statement "We are committed to fighting this case because our Clean Truck Program is the most sustainable plan for ensuring a clean, safe and secure trucking system for the long-haul at the Port of Los Angeles."

The Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, a group of 40 public health environmental, community, labor and faith-based organizations, issued a statement expressing outrage at the decision, and anger at the ATA for fighting the plans. "This is more dirty tricks from a shameless industry that has bullied its way around our backyard for too long," said Alicia Carrera, a Long Beach mother of three asthmatic children, in the coalition's statement.

"This decision places in jeopardy the clean-air goals at the ports, as well as every port infrastructure expansion project that relies on clean trucks," said attorney David Pettit of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which successfully sued the Port of Los Angeles in 2001 alongside community groups, forcing the harbor commissions of the San Pedro Bay to get serious about clean-up. "We are going to vigorously fight to protect these truck plans in court."

Get Sourced. Get Quoted. Get Famous. www.helpareporter.com

You may have seen the title of this post on numerous social networks today as the founder of HARO (Help A Reporter Out), Peter Shankman requested help from his 70,000 members to get the word out today in honor of HARO's first birthday.

HARO is a 3 times per day listserv which sends out requests from reporters looking for sources for particular stories they are writing.  It is a great way to get quoted, often in national publications.  HARO is free, supported through small (often humorous) advertising that precedes the listings.  The subjects of expertise sought are wide ranging but recent listings including diverse transportation and logistics items such as 10+2 and port security.  Through HARO, I recently helped a reporter connect with my friends at Continental Airlines and Airplus concerning the corporate social responsibility trip I recently took to Nicaragua. (more on this to come in another off topic post).

I certainly recommend readers subscribe - you can always unsuscribe later if you find it cluttering your email box.

Digging into the Economic Recovery one website at a time

You may recall when President Obama in his weekly video address of January 24, 2009 announced the launching of www.recovery.gov a website devoted to transparency in the doling out of the billions of dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

As described on the website: 

Recovery.gov is a website that lets you, the taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going. There are going to be a few different ways to search for information. Within days after the signing of the legislation, Federal agencies will start distributing funds, and you will be able to see which states, Congressional districts, and even Federal contractors are receiving them. As soon as we are able to, we'll display that information visually, through maps, charts, and graphics.

The Government has not gone too far with maps, charts and graphics yet, but there is a private site which provides all of that and more. Similar in name but not quite the same is Recovery.com, a website run by Onvia, Inc.  If you register at Recovery.com, Onvia promises to keep you apprised of all upcoming stimulus projects for free.  There are many trasnportation related projects which will receive funding so you may wish to register and keep abreast of where the money is going.

Exchanging contact details

Today I learned about two new methods for exchanging contact details.  While these don't have anything to do with maritime or transportation law, I continue to be amazed as the offshoots of social networking (as well as still trying to figure out a good use for Twitter (at least for myself), so I thought a post was warranted.

The first is making the rounds at SXSW and is called Poken.  Essentially, it is a keyring RFID unit that transmits your basic information and social networking data to other poken users.  The "cutesy" aspect is that the key-rings are in the shape of little creatures and when they high-four (they only have four fingers) they information is transmitted. The devices hold up to 64 contacts and when you are back home, a usb connector lets you upload the data to your contact database and social networking sites.  Poken is apparently gaining traction in Europe and it is clearly being marketed to tweens, teens and young adults but with some re-branding (and maybe less cute devices) it might take hold in a business community too. You can buy Poken devices from UK storefronts, such as here.

The second method is Contxt and I have to thank Ernie Svenson at Ernie the Attorney for pointing this one out. Essentially, it allows people to share contact details and social networking data through SMS.  You text a users name to 50500 and you get the user's info.  A lot easier than a hand full of business cards. Text messaging fees apply per your carrier but I cannot imagine that would stop most people from using this currently free (best testing) service. 

Society of Maritime Arbitrators Speech

Last week I spoke at the monthly luncheon of the Society of Maritime Arbitrators ("SMA") about the use (orlack thereof) of SMA arbitration clauses in shipping service contracts  filed with the Federal Maritime Commission.  My point was that most service contracting is controlled by cargo interests.  Rather than utilizing carrier drafted boilerplate, more often lately the cargo interest has its own prepared boilerplate from which the parties can negotiate.  In my experience, this cargo drafted boilerplate typically includes a choice of law provision for the state law of the cargo interests home state (where Federal Law is silent) and calls for either the local Federal or State courts of cargo's headquarters or else AAAarbitration.  On only a couple of occasions have I seen use of SMA arbitration clauses in cargo inspired boilerplate.  I suggested to the membership of the SMA that they have a good opportunity to develop new work and educate a constituency which is wholly unfamiliar with such an arbitration forum.

If anyone has a different experience, I would love to hear from you.

$100 Million in Grants for Small Shipyard Projects

From Marad's Website:

Maritime Administration Press Book
Feb 26 2009

Under the terms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Maritime Administration has received $100 million for the Small Shipyards Grant Program, which had been funded at $10 million in 2008. This program provides 75 percent federal funds with 25 percent matching funds from the shipyard for capital improvements and related infrastructure improvements which will foster efficiency, competitive operations and quality ship construction and repair. Grant funds may also be used for maritime training programs to foster technical skills and operational productivity.

Of the $100 million, $75 million is reserved for shipyards with 600 employees or less and up to $25 million may be awarded to yards with up to 1200 employees.

Applications must be filed by April 20, 2009 and awards must be made by the Maritime Administration by August 17, 2009. More information is available on the Maritime Administration web site, www.marad.dot.gov.

April 20 is not far off and the application, while not long, will take some time to be completed properly.  A copy of the applicaition can be found here.