6 • May 20 - June 2, 2016 • The Log


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Letters/Online Comments


Who cares who’s watching?


Re: Eyes everywhere: Is Orwell’s fi ctional ‘1984’ becoming reality? (May 6 issue). As a retired police offi cer and a sailboat owner/ operator, who cares? If you’re not doing something you should not, don’t worry about it. Mike


Government surveillance is group’s upmost concern


Re: Eyes everywhere: Is Orwell’s fi ctional ‘1984’ becoming reality? (May 6 issue). Thanks for covering the EPIC lawsuit about AIS. We do not object to the use of AIS for marine safety. Our concern is about government surveillance. Boaters shouldn’t have to choose between safety and privacy. A good policy would ensure that AIS data is used to protect boat- ers not to track them. Marc Rotenberg, President EPIC


Privacy? What Privacy?


Re: Eyes everywhere: Is Orwell’s fi ctional ‘1984’ becoming reality? (May 6 issue). It’s all OK as long as you can always opt out (which you never can of course). Not if, but when, the system goes down and there are no more physical nav aids, well you fi gure out the


rest. Also, everything is hackable so drug runners will hack the system and erase their ships etc. On the other hand, whatever ... Our privacy was gone long ago, the government is just now let- ting the “Sheeple” know about it and of course, you have no power to do anything so bend over for more and more. Mark


No Wild West on the water


Re: From harbor to shining harbor: The freedom of anchor- ages (April 22 issue). There’s also a free anchorage behind Island White at Long Beach, and inside King Harbor. Both have recently shrunk due to the introduction of mooring balls for rent. The free anchorage at San Pedro is very windy, and the checking-in procedure cumbersome. And let’s not forget Catalina Island, where free anchoring is also still avail- able, although slowly disappear- ing due to ever expanding paid mooring ball fi elds. A few die- hards actually live at anchor on Catalina Island year round. Over the years, regulations have made it practically impossible to live at anchor in Southern California. There is no Wild West left on the water, just as there isn’t one in


See COMMENTS page 18


Ask a Maritime Attorney What are the risks of refusing to pay a boat


mechanic? By David Weil, Esq.


Q


I am in the middle of a dispute with a boat mechanic. As a regular


reader of your column I know that you have talked about maritime liens on various occasions in the past, but I have not found any informa- tion about my specifi c problem. I asked the mechanic to do some work for me. He presented an invoice for the work that exceeded the amount of his original estimate, he damaged the vessel interior during the work, and he never completed the job. The amount of the invoice for his services is com- paratively small, and it is actu- ally less than the cost to repair the damage that he caused. As such, I would prefer to just not pay his invoice, but he won’t even discuss the question of the damage until I pay him. What are the risks if I refuse to pay? Can he, for example, get a maritime lien against the vessel or cause other complications?


Fast Facts – Port of Los Angeles By Parimal M. Rohit


More than one dozen recreational boating marinas coexist with commercial berths at the Port of Los Angeles, one of the busiest ports in the entire world. Here are some facts affecting recreational boaters who call the Port of Los Angeles home.


No. of Marinas


No. of Recreational Slips Commercial Terminals Berths


Total Acreage


Waterfront Length Cruise Ships


Total Vessel Arrivals


Container Volume Ranking Top Trade Import Top Trade Export Top Trading Partner


16


3,800 27


270 7,500 43 miles


123 arrivals with 592,335 total passengers (2015) 1,951 in 2015 and 2,088 in 2014


1st in U.S., 19th in world (9th in world with Port of Long Beach) Furniture


Paper/wastepaper China/Hong Kong ($134 billion) Sources: Port of Los Angeles, Journal of Commerce


Our reader is correct. We have talked about maritime liens quite a few times in this column, but there is always a new twist. Here, our reader is concerned about the consequences of refusing to pay a disputed invoice from a maritime vendor. The reason we frequently talk about maritime liens is because they are actually pretty complicated. As pointed out by a leading treatise in admiralty law (Grant Gilmore & Charles Black, The Law of Admiralty), “[t]he beginning of wisdom in the law of maritime liens is that maritime liens and land liens have little in common. A lien is a lien is a lien, but a maritime lien is not.” People don’t “get” or “fi le” a


A


maritime lien. They are formed automatically when someone does work on a boat with the authorization of a boat owner and the vendor is not paid. So nothing needs to be fi led –


they are automatic. But they are “automatic” only to the extent the parties agree to the amount, and – there is a provi- sion for the optional fi ling of a “Notice of Claim of Lien” with the Coast Guard. Further, even if the parties agree on the amount and it is not paid, the foreclosure or collection of the lien is actually a very compli- cated and expensive proce- dure for the creditor and it requires the fi ling of a lawsuit in federal court. In view of these complica-


tions, the biggest question in our reader’s case is whether the vendor will fi le a Notice of Claim of Lien against the boat for the incorrect amount. The fi ling of the notice is the pro- cess that people think of when they ask about “fi ling a lien” against a boat. But the notice has absolutely no legal effect, other than to notify the world that somebody claims to have a lien against the boat, even if the claim is later determined


See ATTORNEY page 7


On Board With Johnson by J.R. Johnson


Port of Los Angeles photo


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