Negligence Claim – Inland Navigation Rules

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Larry Alexander, et al. v. Ingram Barge Company

Case No.: 16-4264

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Negligence Claim – Inland Navigation Rules

At 5:33 in the evening on April 18, 2013, a 14‐barge tow pushed by the M/V Dale A. Heller was sucked into a powerful cross‐current and broke up. Some of the barges crashed (or allided, as mariners would say) into the Marseilles Dam; some sank; some were saved. The accident happened during record‐breaking rains and high water, and a day later, the nearby town of Marseilles experienced significant flooding. This lawsuit, brought by a group who call themselves the Flood Claimants, represents an effort to fix blame for the allision and to recover for their flood damage. The Flood Claimants were stymied, however, when the district court ruled that the United States, which manages the Dam through its Army Corps of Engineers, was immune from suit for its role in the allision, and that the Corps was solely responsible for the accident.

The Flood Claimants believe that Ingram Barge, the company that owns and operates the Dale Heller, shares some of the blame because of its failure to follow certain inland navigation rules and its more general negligence. We conclude, however, that the facts found by the district court were not clearly erroneous, and that those facts support the court’s assignment of sole responsibility to the Corps.

Affirmed
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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.