Proctor in Admiralty

The Jury in the McDonald's Scalding Coffee Case awarded Punitives of $2.7 million...

Today's post is not about a maritime or transportation matter but is about an arbitration run amok. Law.com published a post today about a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge affirming a $4.1 billion arbitration award for wrongful termination.  (Jaw dropping, isn't it?) The article is essentially an interview with Michael D. Young, a partner at Alston & Bird and blogger who wrote about the extreme award on his firm's labor and employment blog.

It appears that the defendant company in the arbitration did not take the case seriously and did not understand the binding nature of this form of ADR.  Their unwillingness to participate fully and their subsequent bizarre behavior apparently indicated to the arbitrator that the defendant was not treating the case with more that a smidgen of gravitas:

The [retired] judge set the hearing for the arbitration, and the defendant wrote a letter to the arbitrator saying, "I'm not going to show up." When there wasn't any information forthcoming from the defendant, what the arbitrator did was look at what information was available about the financial situation of the company and applied adverse inferences against the defendant, essentially filling in the gaps in the story presuming it would come out in favor of the plaintiff. That was really where the numbers started to scale. 

It is a sober reminder to attorneys and an educational lesson for clients that alternative dispute resolution is just that, an alternative, and not something to be treated lightly. See the award here.

Pirates change tactics . . .

The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, Combined Maritime Forces, issued a Special Maritime Advisory  June 9, 2009 warning shipowners and operators about changes in the tactics of Somalia based pirates. According to a press release detailing the Advisory:

Merchants are urged to use the weather to their advantage, planning new routing off the east coast of Somalia due to the start of the southwest monsoon season. The message further details the pirates’ extended range of operations off the Eastern Somali coast, stretching all the way to and beyond The Seychelles, with the use of “mother ships.” These larger vessels allow them to operate further out from shore, providing an afloat staging platform for their attacks. Another new tactic highlighted in the advisory is the potential move into the southern Red Sea. Finally, pirates have also recently increased their number of attacks during the hours of darkness, highlighting the need for heightened vigilance of merchant mariners during both day and night time transits through the high risk areas.

The Fifth Fleet of the United States Navy is responsible for naval forces in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and coast off East Africa as far south as Kenya. The Combined Maritime Forces ("CMF") are comprised of approximately 36 ships from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Pakistan, Canada, Denmark, the U.S. and U.K., as well as other naval forces and personnel from several other nations. The CMF patrols more than 2.5 million square miles of international waters to conduct both integrated and coordinated operations to defeat terrorism, prevent piracy, reduce illegal trafficking of people and drugs, and promote the maritime environment as a safe place for mariners with legitimate business.

400 Years of transportation on the Hudson River

400 years ago Henry Hudson, a Dutch explorer engaged by the Dutch East India Company to find an alternate way to the Orient sailed up the tidal river that now bears his name and found . . . Albany.  This week New York marks the 400th anniversary of that historic voyage with a flotilla of historic, reproduction and modern day vessels sailing the 140 miles from the mouth of the river to Albany.  There are numerous articles and accounts on line including this editorial from the New York TImes discussing the environmental reclamation of the river and this article from the Smithsonian Magazine online describing the construction of a reproduction of the ONRUST, the first covered deck vessel built in New York which played an important role in exploration of the mid Atlantic region during the early 17th century.

For more insight into Henry Hudson and his famous voyage along with the celebration underway, check out both Henry Hudson 400 and Hudson 400 plus NY400 and ExploreNY400.  I am sensing a theme!