E. Damages for Injury to Land-based Structure

• Library: South Carolina Damages (SCBar) (2009 Ed.)

E. Damages for Injury to Land-Based Structure

1. General Principles

When a vessel strikes a bridge, wharf, dolphin, or buoy, or other land based structure, there is a presumption that the vessel is at fault.¹⁸⁹ These incidents are called "allisions" rather than "collisions" because there is only one moving vessel. The stationary, land-based object is entitled to recover repair costs, minus any betterment or depreciation as a result of adding new materials to an older structure.

2. New-for-Old, Betterment, and Depreciation

In most allision cases, there is little discussion of liability. Liability is generally clear. Most of the cases deal with the amount and measure of damages. The question for the courts is what amount of damages will return the owner of the land-based structure to the position it was in before the allision.¹⁹⁰ This requires the court to determine whether the value of the dock or land-based structure has been enhanced beyond its pre-allision value or whether its life has been extended.¹⁹¹

In practice, the new-for-old rule comes into play only if the repairs to the land based structure extend its useful life. If repairs to some portion of a dock do not extend its overall useful life, no depreciation is applied. On the other hand, if the useful life of the structure is extended, the extension of the useful life is divided by the original estimated useful life. The resulting percentage is the useful life extension, and that is the percentage of depreciation that is applied to the overall repair damages.¹⁹² In Delta Commodities v. Jo Oak,¹⁹³the owners of a dolphin sought damages as a result of an allision. Because the dolphin was only nine years old and had a 40-year useful life expectancy, the plaintiff was entitled to recover 31/40, or 77.5% of its repair cost.¹⁹⁴

The owner of a land-based structure can bring suit in state court against a vessel that causes land-based damages.¹⁹⁵ In addition to the...