Subscribe to RSS FeedThings change, right? Steel rusts, wood rots, and opinions weaken. (I think the Germans call it “altersmilder”, meaning the kindness that comes with age.) The point is you can’t disagree with the maxim that the only static thing is change itself.
Some of you might be inclined to reason that legal opinions are unchanging. That seems sort of mechanically acceptable in the sense that once a court rules that, say, a vessel aground on rocks is in peril, it follows that it’ll continue to reach that conclusion in future cases with the same or similar facts. In fact, that concept of precedent is sort of the premise of our entire legal system. We attorneys spend a lot of time rooting out prior legal decisions in an attempt to find an analogous situation so that we can argue in favor of our client because the court ruled in favor of a similarly situated party in the past.
So, I’m leading up to the “denoument” (as the French might say) and that is – and son of a gun – the Second Circuit Court of Appeals changed its mind this Friday afternoon! And it was on a maritime issue. I think the issue is fairly described as a blue-water issue because it typically involves large vessels. But let me tell you, maritime tongues are clucking from New York to London and onto Bahrain and into the setting sun. Depending on where you stand on the issue, there’ll be some smiles, some narrowed eyes of concern and a fair grouping of pursed lips as the change of law is tumbled around upstairs and the newly conceived risks and benefits of the decision are weighed. If you’re wondering what a large contingent of the world’s traders, vessel owners, charterers, vendors and maritime attorneys are thinking about this Friday evening, don’t be ‘cause I’m telling you it’s this decision.
What’s that? Oh, I know, I never got into what it was that they changed their mind about! Sorry if this post feels like that spousal spat where you forget what the hell the dispute was, but the reality is that it’s Friday night . . . . don’t worry, check back and I’ll tell you in the next post.
Underway and making way.
--- JKF
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