Empire Seafoods, Inc. v. Anderson

DYER, Circuit Judge:

Because the tip of the starboard outrigger of Empire’s1 shrimper “Bora Bora” struck the leaf of a bascule bridge under construction by Cleary, which spanned the channel of the Florida Inter-coastal Waterway, the manual crank used to raise the leaf was violently reversed causing injury to its operators, Anderson and Gates, for which they recovered damages reduced by the comparative negligence rule against Empire, who in turn recovered one-half from Cleary in the Admiralty Court below. Empire recovered, under the divided damages rule, for the damages suffered by its vessel.…