# Tittle v. Aldacosta

> Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · January 3, 1977 · 544 F.2d 752

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/8900080

## Case

- **Full name:** In re the Complaint of Robert A. TITTLE for exoneration from or limitation of liability as the owner of the M/V ADIOS v. Nicholas ALDACOSTA and Brenda Aldacosta, Third-Party v. Mike TITTLE, Third-Party Cross v. NORTHWESTERN NATIONAL INSURANCE CO., Cross
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- **Decided:** January 3, 1977
- **Citations:** 544 F.2d 752; 1978 A.M.C. 112
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Gee
- **Judges:** Brown, Gee, Tuttle
- **Cited by:** 81 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/8900080

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that the Limitation of Liability Act "afford[s] protection to the physically remote owner who, after the ship breaks ground, has no effective control over his water-borne servants”
- finding that owner of charter fishing boat owed passenger a duty to prevent boat’s transom from becoming excessively slippery
- explaining that “[ejxoneration is contingent upon a finding of no contributory fault”

## Opinion text

GEE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
The court below, which heard the witnesses, observed their demeanor, etc., found, on ample evidence both ways, that the transom in question was dry or virtually so and not unreasonably slippery. The majority does not find otherwise. 1 The court below found that Mrs. Aldacosta simply “missed the dock with her foot,” though the mate was holding her arm to help her off. It did not find that she slipped, nor do we: “Despite the mate’s assistance Brenda [Mrs. Aldacosta] missed the dock with her foot and fell . . . ,” 2
No one has yet found that Mrs. Aldacosta slipped. Until someone does, the absent towel bears no more causal relation to her injury than the absence of running lights. Baffled by such reasoning, I dissent.
. Indeed, to divine a board’s degree of wetness from a dry record would be a striking appellate feat.
. Supra at p. 755.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/8900080. Public record. Not legal advice.