[Download] "Chute v. United States" by First Circuit United States Court Of Appeals # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

April 04, 2021

eBook details

Title: Chute v. United States
Author : First Circuit United States Court Of Appeals
Release Date : January 26, 1979
Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
Pages : * pages
Size : 64 KB

Description

Plaintiffs' decedents were passengers on a sports fishing boat which sank after striking the remains of a vessel scuttled in 1949 by the United States Navy for use as a bombing target and thereafter abandoned. Holding that the accident and ensuing fatalities were caused by the United States' failure adequately to mark (or else to remove) the sunken hazard, the district court awarded damages.1 The United States has appealed. The accident happened in the following manner. On September 30, 1971, plaintiffs' decedents accompanied their friend, Dr. Baxter, in his boat, the AD LIB II, for a day of fishing. After fishing four to five hours in Nantucket Sound, approximately seven to eight miles southwest of Hyannisport, Massachusetts, Dr. Baxter and his party headed home. The weather was hazy, not foggy, with visibility of some seven or eight miles. Dr. Baxter did not know his precise location, but he believed he was in the vicinity of Horseshoe Shoals somewhat south of the charted location of the submerged wreck which he later struck.2 He headed the vessel in a north-northeast direction on a course of 30 degrees magnetic at a semi-planing speed of 14 knots. In the distance he could see a familiar tower on a hill and decided his course would take him back to Hyannisport.3 Shortly, thereafter, he was surprised to notice he was in shallow water, and moments later he heard the vessel strike something.