Earlier this month, a Panel of the Eleventh Circuit considered two issues of first impression construing contribution and liability of a vessel owner under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA”) 33 U.S.C. §§ 2701 – 2720. In Savage Services Corporation v. United States of America—F. 4th– (11thCir. 2022), the Court held that OPA did not create a cause of action for contribution for the cost of oil removal by a vessel operator against the United States. Second, the Court determined that a vessel pushing a tank barge discharging oil into the navigable waters of the United States could not be shielded from all statutory liability for remedial costs by asserting that the federal government was solely negligent. Finally, the Panel held that the comprehensive liability scheme within OPA both displaced and preempted a vessel owner’s claim against the United States arising under the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U.S.C. §§ 30901- 30918 (“SSA”).
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