V.A. FOGG

Yesterday, February 1st, 2012, marked the 40th anniversary of the explosion and sinking of the cargo vessel V.A. Fogg in Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the death of all 39 crew members onboard.

On February 1, 1972, the cargo ship V.A. Fogg –formerly the liberty ship SS Four Lakes– unloaded a cargo of benzene in Freeport, Texas and departed for the Gulf of Mexico to clean its tanks before heading to Galveston to drop off its remaining cargo of xylene.  Just a few hours after her departure, the V.A. Fogg erupted in a massive fire ball while steaming at full speed and sank in just 100 feet of water, instantly killing all 39 crew members.

No official cause of the accident was ever determined however a report from the USCG and NTSB named a number of possible contributing factors including the highly flammable vapors present onboard the vessel, a newly installed boiler system that had failed several times, improperly operating cargo pumps, leakage between the vessels two cargo tanks and fumes that had occasionally entered the berthing quarters through the air conditioning system.

Once again, the deadly incident is just another example of how routine operations can go horribly wrong.

Today, the wreckage of V.A. Fogg wrests with a number of sunken Liberty ships and barges at the Freeport Liberty Ship Reef Site, entertaining scuba enthusiasts and fisherman from all over the world.

BP - British Petroleum

The amount of damages that has been awarded in the aftermath of the Gulf Oil Spill has amounted to $40 billion for cleanup costs, damage claims and economic losses. BP has filed a lawsuit against Halliburton to recover some of the damages that arose out of the disaster because there is a lot of money at stake.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who is presiding over the case, ruled in a New Orleans Federal court Tuesday that Halliburton will not have to pay BP because of a contractual obligation between BP and Halliburton.

According to the drilling contract, BP agreed to indemnify Halliburton “for any and all claims related to a blowout or uncontrolled well condition and for any and all claims relating to pollution and/or contamination from the reservoir.”

An article in the Bloomberg News website reported on this story:

Judge Barbier wrote in his ruling:

BP is required to indemnify Halliburton for third-party compensatory claims that arise from pollution or contamination that did not originate from the property or equipment of Halliburton located above the surface of the land or water, even if Halliburton’s gross negligence caused the pollution

Tuesday’s ruling follows a similar ruling that Judge Barbier made earlier where it was determined that BP must indemnify Transocean Ltd., who owned the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig that exploded and sank in April, 2010.

Neither of these two rulings addressed the subject of punitive damages which Transocean or Halliburton still may be found liable. In addition to punitive damages, which could be substantial, there is also the matter of fines levied for violations of the Clean Water Act.

A nonjury trial has been scheduled by Judge Barbier to begin on February 27, 2012 which will determine who was at fault for the explosion. So far, no trials have been scheduled to determine punitive damages in these cases.

One important factor which could change the outcome of Tuesday’s ruling is whether or not there was any fraud involved on Halliburton’s part. If it is later determined that the company fraudulently concealed material information about the cement tests, then it could place them in a position to be liable for civil damages.

A finding of fraud on Halliburton’s part would, in effect, render the indemnification in the drilling contract null and void. BP stated that the amount it has paid in claims, advances and other payments to government, businesses and individuals to date has added up to over $7.8 billion.

in a Dec. 21 filing BP also describes Halliburton’s motion for indemnity to be “fatally premature.” BP stated that Halliburton’s conduct still remained “to be resolved at trial,” and that the issue needed to be settled as to whether or not Halliburton “was grossly negligent or committed fraud by making false statements and concealing test results before it used a defective cement slurry on the Macondo well.”

Read the indemnification ruling issued by the judge:
Order Reasons Why Halliburton Need Not Indemnify BP

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Italian authorities yesterday officially called off search operations for missing people in the submerged portions of the stricken Costa Concordia due to conditions that are just to dangerous and complex for divers to continue.

Studies conducted of ships’ deformed hull created too many safety concerns to continue the search within it, said Italy’s Civil Protection Agency in a statement. A spokeswoman for the agency, Francesca Maffini, told the Associate Press that a search for the missing would continue wherever possible, including the parts of the ship above water, and the waters surrounding the ship and along the Giglio coastline.

A total of 17 bodies have been recovered since the January 13 wreck off the coast of Giglio.  15 people remain missing including an American couple from Minnesota.

Meanwhile, the operator of the Costa Concordia, Costa Crociere, and its parent company, Carnival Cruises, has offered survivors approximately $14,460 each plus travel and medical expenses as compensation.  So far at least two lawsuits have been filed already in the U.S.–one class action suit filed by a Peruvian crewmember on Jan. 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the other a claim by 6 passengers filed Jan. 27 in the 11th Circuit in Miami.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to rule on BP's motions to seal testimony and strike evidence.

BP’s numerous motions asking the judge to exclude various pieces of evidence include:

• Prior criminal proceedings
• Problems with regulators
• Portions of former BP CEO Tony Hayward’s deposition testimony
• How employee compensation was tied to cutting costs
• BP’s past safety issues in the 2005 Texas City, Texas refinery explosion

Read the motions below:

1. BP Memorandum in Support of Motion in Limine
2. PSCs Motion in Opposition to BPs Motion to Exclude Haywards Testimony
3. BP Motion in Limine to Preclude Testimony

In an article published at Nola.com, BP says in numerous court filings that its opponents are trying to unfairly smear the company’s character by looking at regulatory entanglements and at incidents such as a system failure at a chemical plant in Scotland, a corroded pipeline that ruptured in Alaska and the explosion in Texas City, which killed 15 workers. The company says that these incidents occurred in environments different from the Gulf of Mexico, have no connection to the facts about the April 2010 disaster, and will distract attention in a proceeding that’s already dense with information, and should be excluded. The company further says that as one of the world’s biggest companies, it’s not surprising that it would have workplace accidents in its record.

BP also states that former CEO Tony Hayward was improperly badgered and harassed during his deposition and further states that issues involving how employees are recruited, promoted and compensated should be excluded as irrelevant.

Other companies involved in the litigation have also asked Judge Barbier to seal exhibits so they can’t be discussed in open court and won’t be available as part of the public record, even though they can be used in the trial.

Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan told the parties during a working group conference on Friday that the court intended to conduct a public proceeding.

“Come trial, unless it’s the formula for Coca-Cola, it all comes in. We’re not going to lock and unlock the door,” Shushan said.

During the conference BP attorney Andy Langan said that getting a ruling from Judge Barbier on BP’s “other incidents” motion was a top priority.

But the U.S. Department of Justice, the plaintiff attorneys committee and even Halliburton say that BP’s history of workplace disasters is central to the litigation. They say it’s not a matter of establishing character, as BP claims, but rather of assessing the culture of safety at the company responsible for the nation’s worst environmental disaster. If BP had implemented the “process safety” changes that it promised after Texas City, the Deepwater Horizon blowout wouldn’t have been possible.

In addition, Halliburton said BP’s “flagrant” violations of safety standards are not normal within the oil industry or for large industrial organizations.

In their opposition to BP, the plaintiffs suggest that Hayward might have perjured himself before Congress during his deposition when he said that BP had done a “full and comprehensive” investigation of the Macondo blowout and had invested heavily in safety. The plaintiffs also say that depositions also show that BP executives were rewarded for cutting costs, that a process safety specialist was fired in November 2009 and his boss was asked to leave the company shortly thereafter and was given “hush” money.

M/V Delta Mariner. Photo: Boeing

A cargo ship carrying a load of empty rocket booster cores struck a bridge in western Kentucky taking a nearly 300 foot portion of the bridge with it as she passed underneath.

According to authorities, the M/V Delta Mariner struck the Eggner Ferry Bridge at approximately 8:10pm local time on Thursday, causing two spans of the U.S. 68/KY 80 bridge stretching over the Kentucky Lake to collapse onto the vessels bow.  Authorities have said that there have been no reported injuries from the collision and they do not believe any vehicles fell from the bridge.  Meanwhile the U.S. Coast Guard adds that the M/V Delta Mariner was not carrying any hazardous cargo.

Owned and operated by Foss Maritime, the 312-foot long M/V Delta Mariner is generally used to carry Boeing rocket components, including rocket boosters, for the Boeing Delta IV rocket program.  The vessel is designed to navigate shallow inland waterways and open ocean.  The vessel is generally tasked with haulig rocket components the Boeing factory in Decatur, Alabama to the Gulf of Mexico, according to Foss’ website.

The two-lane bridge Eggner Ferry Bridge is located at the western entrance to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area and is crossed, on average, by approximately 2,800 cars per day.  Luckily, no cars were on the section of the bridge that collapsed onto the M/V Delta Mariner.

An investigation into the cause of the allision is ongoing however a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokesman told the Associated Press that he believes most of the navigational lights were functioning on the bridge at the time of impact.  Other reports indicate that high water may have played a role in the crash and that the vessel may have passed under the wrong span of the bridge, providing the vessel has been making trip for the past 10 years without problems.

The accident is the latest example proving that offshore and marine accidents can and do happen during routine transits and operations.  Luckily in this case no one was injured however a 300 foot span of twisted metal and concrete laying across the ships bow could have easily resulted in the loss of life or injury.  If you are a U.S. mariner and find yourself injured while onboard a vessel it’s always a good idea to find a good Jones Act lawyer by state.

Passengers are still free to take legal action on their own if they do not accept the offer.

Codacons, one of Italy’s best-known consumer groups, has engaged two U.S. law firms to launch a class-action lawsuit against Costa and Carnival in Miami, claiming that it expects to get anywhere from $164,000 to $1.3 million per passenger.

According to Newsmax, a complaint, alleging negligence and breach of contract, was filed yesterday in federal court in Chicago by crew member Gary Lobaton, who seeks class-action status to represent all victims of the disaster off Giglio Island. The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, has been accused of causing the accident and abandoning ship.

The case is Gary Lobaton vs Carnival Corp, Case No. 1:12-cv-00598, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

The three tugs pictured in the videos — M/V Tara Crosby, M/V Crosby Viking and M/V Crosby Clipper — are owned and operated by Crosby Tugs out of Galliano, La. and you’ll notice the video narrator adds that these kind of jobs are “90% of the jobs” they do.

Obviously, the operations shown in this video went off without a hitch but we post the videos to highlight the inherent dangers that come when working with powerful tugs and massive pieces of machinery.  When a tugboat is attached to a large vessel, like the jack-up drilling rig shown in the videos, the potential for danger always exists.  Tow winches, steel cables and heavy loads can turn routine operations into recipes for disaster.

Although we are confident that U.S. has the best crews that work to minimize risk in such operations, accident do happen.  If you find yourself injured while working on tugboats, make sure you talk to tugboat injury lawyer to ensure that you receive the proper care you deserve.

The MARGE MCFARLIN towing vessel, built in 1976. Photo: Ingram Barge Company

Parts of the Monongahela and Ohio rivers were closed late last week after a towing vessel allided with a bridge while pushing 12 loaded coal barges, resulting in two of the barges breaking away.

The Coast Guard reported that at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley received a report that the towing vessel Marge Mcfarlin, which is owned and operated by Ingram Barge Company, allided with the Liberty Highway Bridge at mile marker 1.1 on the Monongahela River causing two coal barges to break away and snagging a third as they drifted down river.

One of the barges was reported to have sank in the vicinity of the Fort Pitt Bridge, and the second barge eventually struck a barge fleeting area, causing another moored barge to break loose. Both barges are resting at mile marker 0.8, at the foot of Smithfield Street Bridge.  A total of four Pittsburgh bridges were closed as a result of the barges breaking away.

The accident forced the closure of a portion of the Monongahela River, from mile marker 0.0 to 1.2, and a portion of the Ohio River, from mile marker 0.0 to 0.2 to vessel traffic.  The Coast Guard was eventually able to reopen the closed portions on Saturday after salvage operations for the two breakaway barges was completed.

Luckily no one was injured in the incident and the cause of the allision is under investigation.

The Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Mississippi and Monogahela Rivers serve as steady transportation sources for commerce and serve as arteries for barge traffic carrying coal, limestone, petroleum products and other commodities.  A steady increase in river traffic over the last few years has brought a corresponding increase in the number of inland waterway injuries and accidents.

We always recommend that if you are injured on the inland waterways that you contact a Pennsylvania Maritime Jones Act Lawyer or corresponding Jones Act lawyer by state.  If you are unsure when to contact a barge injury lawyer, you can read HERE.

The bodies were identified as two women which now brings the total number of the dead to 15. Eighteen passengers are still missing.

Gabrielli said that the bodies have yet to be removed from the ship and the nationalities of the victims have yet to be determined.

The Costa Concordia cruise ship still lies on its side partially submerged as the search continues for the remaining missing.

Photo shows Costa Cruise accident off the island of Giglio Italy. PHOTO: Max Rossi/Reuters

The Hungarian foreign ministry reports that Feher’s body was found inside the ship and was identified by his mother who traveled to the city of Grosseto, Italy.

The Southeast Missourian reports:

Eleven people have been confirmed dead so far, but the number of missing dropped to 21 Wednesday after a German passenger who was listed as missing was found alive back in Germany, the Grosseto prefect’s office reported. Italian officials have only released 27 names so far, including 12 Germans, six Italians, four French, two Americans and one person each from Hungary, India and Peru.

Jozsef Balog, a pianist who worked with Feher on the ship, told the Blikk newspaper that Feher was wearing a life jacket when he decided to return to his cabin to pack his violin. Feher was last seen on deck en route to the area where he was supposed to board a lifeboat.

According to Balog, Feher helped put life jackets on several crying children before returning to his cabin.

Others among the missing included a 5-year-old Italian girl and her father, an American couple from Michigan, several German retirees and crew members from Peru and India.

Due to the shifting of the ship, Italian rescue workers decided to suspend rescue operations on Wednesday due to safety issues so as not to endanger the lives of the divers and firefighters.

The captain, whose story has changed several times, remains under house arrest charged with manslaughter and abandoning the ship.