The line between maritime and non-maritime jurisdiction
continues to be redrawn. A recent case out of the Southern District
of New York, Fireman's Fund v Great American Insurance
Company, 2013 U.S. Dist. 11114, held a dry dock that sank at
its berth in Texas not to be a vessel. Unless plaintiffs could
establish an alternative jurisdictional basis such as Diversity of
Citizenship, the court ruled it lacked jurisdiction to decide the
underlying insurance dispute.
Federal law, specifically 1 U.S.C. § 3, defines a vessel to
include every description of watercraft or other artificial
contrivance used or capable of being used as a means of
transportation on water. The court in Fireman's Fund
reasoned that if the dry dock could be used as a means of
transportation, as set forth in § 3, it would be considered a
vessel and admiralty jurisdiction would exist.
