Lauritzen v. Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District

MEMORANDUM

WALTER E. HOFFMAN, Chief Judge.

The question to be decided on respondent’s exceptions to the libel filed herein is whether the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District, a political subdivision of the State of Virginia, is immune from an action brought in admiralty to recover damages to libelant’s vessel arising from the ship’s striking an underwater obstruction which respondent allegedly permitted to remain in a navigable ship channel following the construction of the seventeen mile bridge-tunnel project crossing the Chesapeake Bay. We hold that, under the particular facts of this…