To state the obvious, a wooden washtub, a plastic dishpan, a swimming platform on pontoons, a large fishing net, a door taken off its hinges, or Pinocchio (when inside the whale) are not “vessels,” even if they are “artificial contrivance[s]” capable of floating, moving under tow, and incidentally carrying even a fair-sized item or two when they do so. Rather, thestatute applies to an “artificial contrivance . . . capable of being used . . . as a means of transportation on water.” Justice Stephen Breyer.
Lozman vs. Riviera Beach US Sup. Court 1/15/2013
Relying on the "purpose" and "transport" capability of a vessel, the Court applies a new standard: whether “a reasonable observer, looking to the [craft]’s physical characteristics and activities, would not consider it to be designed to any practical degree for carrying people or things on water.”
This decision is likely to create new litigation in Jones Act vs. Longshore cases.
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