Germain v. Ficarra

KATZMANN, Chief Judge:

In broad strokes, this case concerns a tort involving a vessel on navigable waters. More specifically, the case involves a diving accident off a recreational vessel anchored in shallow but navigable lake waters. Before the 1970s, it would have been beyond doubt that such facts would place this case squarely in the jurisdiction of the federal courts, because the traditional test for admiralty tort jurisdiction simply asked whether the tort occurred on navigable waters. -

But in 1972, the Supreme Court began refining the situs rule, or locality test, for admiralty tort…