A reversal Wednesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit revives a shipping company's effort to limit its liability for vibration damage to nearby homes from the $56 million rebuilding of the Pinellas Bayway Bridge near St. Pete Beach.

It's a case about clocks, ships, what holds up bridges—long poles called piles—and how they get under there. Also, it's a cautionary tale about what can happen to valuable coastal real estate.

“This admiralty appeal requires us to navigate uncharted waters in order to determine what constitutes sufficient notice of a claim under the Shipowner's Limitation of Liability Act,” Judge Kevin Newsom wrote. In an opinion joined by Judge Stanley Marcus and Senior Judge R. Lanier Anderson, Newsom reversed Middle District of Florida Judge Mary Stenson Scriven's dismissal of a limitation action filed by Orion Marine Construction Inc.