A Solution To The Single-Claimant Stipulation Problem – Roen Salvage Company v. Sarter

The stipulation preceding the district court's stay of a limitation proceeding involving a single claimant is both simplistic formulism and the cause of prolonged headaches for maritime attorneys and courts. Too often attorneys treat the stipulation as being essentially outcome determinative, drafting redlines with bloated language designed to avoid every imagined loophole and seeking to reconfirm—or even invent—the legal rights under dispute. As always, the victims of excessive drafting and arguments aren't attorneys, but their clients, who pay for it directly through fees or indirectly through prolonged delay.

This issue underscores Roen Salvage Company v. Sarter, a recent Seventh Circuit decision authored by Judge Easterbrook.² In a refreshing analysis, the court reasoned that the single-claimant "stipulation"—itself considered a misnomer—is simply unnecessary. It concluded that the parties' respective rights arise from and are constrained by federal statute.