Hillier v. Southern Towing Co.

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

This appeal raises difficult questions of admiralty law and sovereign immunity arising from the effort of two firms to obtain indemnity from the United States. The firms are defendants in a suit brought by the widow of a member of the armed forces who was killed while on active duty. They seek indemnity on the ground that the United States was the primary wrongdoer in the accident.

Henry Hillier, a marine safety inspector in the Coast Guard with the rank of boatswain’s mate second class, was sent to one of the Great Lakes ports to monitor the discharge of a cargo of…