Ninth Circuit hears Ecuadorian fishing crew lawsuit against U.S.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has remanded to the lower court a lawsuit by an Ecuadorian fishing crew against the U.S. government.

24 crew members were named as plaintiffs in Tobar v. United States.

From the case file, plaintiffs alleged that:

" [o]n or about October 5, 2005 in international waters off the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean the agents of the [United States] unlawfully and negligently, stopped, searched, arrested, detained and imprisoned the Plaintiffs, seized the boat, destroyed the cargo and fish owned by [some] Plaintiffs . . . for allegedly smuggling and possessing illegal drugs."

According to the complaint, the Coast Guard damaged the cargo and towed the boat and the crew hundreds of miles to mainland Ecuador. There, the Ecuadorian government conducted further tests but uncovered no contraband with no charges being filed against the crew.

The plaintiffs filed a $5 million lawsuit against the U.S. in Southern District of California Federal Court for "unlawful imprisonment, humiliation, pain and suffering, destruction of personal property, loss of their catch, loss of the use of the vessel, and public ridicule." 

That court dismissed the case on the grounds that the U.S. did not waive sovereign immunity which is a requirement for such international cases.

In the appeal, the Ninth Circuit agreed  that there was no waiver of sovereign immunity but vacated the dismissal and remanded the case back to the lower court to determine whether evidence had been introduced supporting reciprocity under Ecuadorian law. Under the Public Vessels Act, foreign nationals may sue the U.S. if their own countries would allow a similar suit.

Read Tobar v. United States in our article library here.

Source: Hawaii Ocean Law.com