Barge to Brooklyn Leads to Federal Maritime Liability, Preempts State Law

Recently the New York State Court of Appeals decided that a power-generating barge moored in the Gowanus Canal constituted a “vessel,” thus permitting a maintenance worker injured aboard the barge to bring an action for compensation under federal maritime law. Now, before you say that interest in that decision would be limited to the admiralty bar only, keep this in mind: a) New York is a state that in major part is surrounded by water, to say nothing of internal waterways, and is thus highly dependent upon those navigable waters for transportation and commerce; and b) because of the significant activity that transpires on those waters, the definition of “vessel” and the liability connected thereto has broad implications for legal practitioners, generalists as well as maritime specialists. Given those wide ramifications, we will examine this new Court of Appeals decision, but first let us say a few words about the underlying law.

Obtaining redress for injury at sea is, of course, a field dominated by two centuries of federal maritime law, with its historical antecedents going back even further than that. For instance, merchant sailors injured on their vessels seek compensation via the long established Jones Act,¹ specifically tailored to serve their needs, while passengers on cruise ships would bring suit in federal court under general maritime law.