author: MOTLEY, Chief Judge.

text:
    The FORTY-SECOND STREET COMPANY and World's Busiest Corner Corp., Plaintiffs, v. Edward I. KOCH, individually and as Mayor of the City of New York; Board of Estimate of the City of New York; Department of City Planning of the City of New York; Herbert Sturz, individually and as Director of the Department of City Planning; Public Development Corporation of the City of New York; City of New York; New York State Urban Development Corporation; Times Square Redevelopment Corporation; William J. Stern, individually and as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of the New York State Urban Development Corporation and as Chairman of Times Square Redevelopment Corporation; Cambridge Investment Group, Ltd.; Michael J. Lazar; Jujamcyn Company, Inc.; Park Tower Realty Corp.; New York Trade Mart; and Tishman Speyer Properties, individually and as General Partner of New York Trade Mart, Defendants.
    No. 84 Civ. 8780 (CBM).
    United States District Court, S.D. New York.
    July 18, 1985.

      Rubin Baum Levin Constant & Friedman by Martin J. Schwartz, Gerald Harris, New York City, Alan H. Levine, New York City, for plaintiffs.
    Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr., Corp. Counsel by Carolyn Herman, Gary Schuller, New York City, for defendants Koch, Bd. of Estimate, Dept, of City Planning, Sturz, Public Development Corp.
    Leahey & Johnson, by Peter James Johnson, New York City, for defendants New York State Urban Development Corp., Times Square Redevelopment Corp., and Stern.
    Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, by Martin Flumenbaum, New York City, for defendants Tishman Speyer Properties and New York Trade Mart.
    Kaye Scholer Fierman Hays & Handler, by Gerald Sobel, New York City, for defendants Park Tower Realty Corp.
    Breed Abbott & Morgan, by Robert Bicks, New York City, for defendants Cambridge Investment Group, Ltd., Michael J. Lazar, and the Jujamcyn Co.
   OPINION

MOTLEY, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs, two companies affiliated with the Brandt Organization, hold long-term leases on eight motion picture theaters on Forty-Second Street which are slated to be condemned and converted to retail and live theater use as part of the Forty-Second Street Development Project. The theaters exhibit primarily low-budget martial arts and horror films and some sexually explicit films to a largely low-income and minority audience. Plaintiffs seek to enjoin the Project, which will also bring office towers, a hotel, and a merchandise mart to the Times Square area, only insofar as it calls for the condemnation and changed use of these theaters. Plaintiffs allege that defendants, including various state officials and agencies and several private developers involved in the Project, are motivated by hostility towards the content of plaintiffs’ movies and the racial composition of plaintiffs’ audience, and that the plan to condemn the theaters therefore violates the First Amendment and Equal Protection rights of both plaintiff theater operators and their minority customers.

This court has already confronted, in two previous cases, many of the issues implicated by the City’s ambitious plans for Times Square. In Rosenthal & Rosenthal v. New York State Urban Dev. Corp., 605 F.Supp. 612 (S.D.N.Y.1985), the court rejected a claim that the proposed condemnation of a viable office building on Forty-First Street as part of the Project was not rationally-related to a legitimate government purpose. In G. & A. Books, Inc. v. Stern, 604 F.Supp. 898 (S.D.N.Y.1985), the court held that the condemnation of several adult bookstores along with hundreds of other businesses to make way for the four large office towers planned for the Project did not violate the First Amendment.

Arguing that the court’s disposition of G. & A. Books controls the present case, defendants seek summary judgment on plaintiffs’ First Amendment claim, and argue as well for dismissal of plaintiffs’ claim of racial discrimination. Defendants also urge, as they did in the earlier dismissed cases, that this court should exercise its discretion to abstain from deciding the present matter. After careful consideration of the voluminous submissions in this case, the court declines to abstain, but concludes that there exist no disputed issues of material fact with respect to plaintiffs’ race and speech claims. Therefore, for the reasons set forth below, defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted. FACTS:

At the outset, the court wishes to make clear what is not in dispute in this case. The court has already made substantial and detailed findings with respect to the plan to redevelop Times Square.

The Forty-Second Street Development Project is a large-scale redevelopment scheme jointly undertaken by the City and the State which would dramatically alter the physical, social, and cultural environment of the Times Square area. The Project emerged after years of false starts and failed initiatives by public officials seeking to bring renewal to Forty-Second Street. The present plan is the product of a lengthy, statutorily mandated land use review procedure which included extensive public hearings and resulted in hundreds of pages of detailed findings on the Project’s impact. Even a brief, partial summary of these proceedings and findings is sufficient for this court to conclude that substantial and important public purposes underlie the Project.

G. & A. Books, 604 F.Supp. at 902.

Although the court’s findings of fact in G. & A. Books cannot have collateral estoppel effect on the different plaintiffs in this case, these plaintiffs do not dispute the essential legitimacy of the Project or its goals. Therefore, to the extent that the findings in G. & A. Books reflect undisputed matters of public record and are not challenged in factual disputes addressed herein, they are adopted here by reference in the interests of brevity.

In short, the Project seeks to eradicate what is characterized without dispute as blight in the Times Square area including violent crime, drug dealing, prostitution, decaying and underutilized buildings, and depressed property values. The Project takes a drastic approach which calls for the wholesale clearing of several hundred businesses to make way for four large office towers and other development. The goal is to transform the area by radically altering its physical and social makeup with upscale offices, retail businesses, and cultural enterprises. See G. & A. Books, 604 F.Supp. at 902-05.

The wisdom of this plan is not, all parties agree, a matter for this court to evaluate. Moreover, the plan’s overall legitimacy and the legitimacy of its underlying goals are not challenged by any party. Plaintiffs do not allege that the entire Project is motivated either by racist or anti-free speech goals. Therefore, the only area of potential dispute in this case is the constitutionality of one part of the Project: the plan to condemn plaintiffs’ theaters and convert them to live theater and other non-movie uses.

Under the Project plan, plaintiffs’ theaters on Forty-Second Street are the only buildings to be condemned but not destroyed. Instead, they will be renovated, altered, and turned over to other operators for uses consistent with the Project. The Lyric, Apollo, and Selwyn theaters will be converted to live theater use with defendant Jujamcyn Company as operator. The Times Square and Empire theaters will be converted to retail and restaurant use. The Liberty and Victory theaters will be used for non-profit or “institutional” theater. The Rialto theater and the attached office building will be demolished. See Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) at S-12, 1-12 and Table 1-1.

Several purposes are stated to underlie this aspect of the Project: To preserve the historically and architecturally significant theaters, to restore the theaters to their historic use as live theaters, to encourage live theater in the Broadway area, and to provide new retail and institutional facilities to support the area’s other new developments such as the office towers and Trade Mart. See FEIS at S-3, S — 12—13; Affidavit of Defendant William J. Stern at 2-4.

Plaintiffs maintain that their theaters in fact are being singled out for condemnation because defendants object to the content of the movies they exhibit, which include low-budget martial arts and horror movies along with some mainstream Hollywood fare and sexually explicit films. In addition, plaintiffs allege that the condemnation is motivated in part by racial bias in that the Project planners seek to remove from the area the thousands of blacks and Hispanics who comprise three-quarters of plaintiffs’ daily audience. Plaintiffs allege that it will be impossible for the theaters to relocate and that the Project therefore will cut off access to their type of low-cost entertainment, which is offered in few other locations in New York.

In support of these First Amendment and Equal Protection claims and in an attempt to defeat the instant motion for summary judgment, plaintiffs have submitted substantial material which challenges many of the factual assumptions alleged to underlie the policy decisions that produced the present Project plan. This material includes affidavits from prominent individuals in the fields of social psychology, sociology, architecture, and entertainment. While the court might be inclined to agree with much of what plaintiffs assert as a matter of social policy, most of plaintiffs' allegations go to the wisdom rather than the legitimacy of those aspects of the Project affecting plaintiffs’ theaters. Therefore, although plaintiffs raise many factual questions which may be in dispute, the court concludes that, by and large, these questions of fact are not material to the motion for summary judgment. Plaintiffs’ allegations will for this reason be summarized very briefly herein.

Plaintiffs, through the affidavit of architect Michael William Toto, allege that their theaters are not blighted, are well-maintained, and are suitable for continued use as movie theaters, that the theaters are either not architecturally significant or are not capable of having their significant features restored, and that the Project plan will not “restore” the theaters architecturally but will simply alter them to allow new uses. The willingness of Project planners to gut some of the theaters for retail use is argued to belie their intention to preserve outstanding architecture. See generally Affidavit of Michael William Toto. To the extent that defendants do seek to maintain significant architectural features, such as the noteworthy facades of many of the theaters, plaintiffs insist that they will cooperate with the City and that condemning the theaters is therefore unnecessary. In any event, urge plaintiffs, landmarking or condemning just the facades of certain theaters would adequately serve the state interest in historic preservation.

Plaintiffs further allege that their theaters historically were not devoted primarily to “legitimate” theater but rather have a varied history of use for burlesque, vaudeville, and movies, and a half-century commitment to low-cost movie entertainment. See Affidavit of Carl M. Levine at 7-9. If the condemnation is allowed, plaintiffs allege that low-income New Yorkers will be deprived of a significant entertainment center. See id. at 11-17. City hostility towards new movie theaters and prohibitive economics will prevent plaintiffs’ relocation. Id. at 20-23. Moreover, plaintiffs allege that there exists a surfeit of legitimate Broadway theaters, that the Broadway economy has been depressed for several years, and that most of the converted theaters are likely to remain unrented, rendering the proposed conversion economic folly. See generally Affidavit of Arthur Cantor.

Plaintiffs urge the foregoing in support of their allegation that the plan to condemn their theaters is not supported by significant historical, cultural, or architectural goals, but rather is motivated by hostility toward their films and their audience. Plaintiffs cite myriad negative comments by government officials about their theaters as further support for this conclusion. Plaintiffs allege that their theaters are linked in Project studies, without support, to blight in the Times Square area in that the theaters are falsely assumed to be deteriorating or to be the site of rampant crime. See, e.g., FEIS at S-7, 1-4, 1-6, 1-23, 2-99. Moreover, plaintiffs allege that the very stated goals of the Project reflect the planners’ open hostility toward the content of plaintiffs’ exhibited films: “... to preserve and restore the area’s extraordinary older theaters for theatrical and upgraded movie use____” FEIS at S-3 (emphasis added).

This hostility, argue plaintiffs, is closely linked to defendants’ distaste for the largely low-income and minority audience attracted to plaintiffs’ theaters. Plaintiffs have submitted the affidavits of psychologist Kenneth B. Clark and sociologist Herbert J. Gans to support their allegation that the Project plan is infected with class and race bias. Dr. Clark conducted a survey which allegedly demonstrates that plaintiffs’ minority-based audience is stable and law-abiding and depends on plaintiffs’ theaters for low-cost entertainment. He concludes that statements in the FEIS and other documents seeking to link the theaters to crime and blight are based on racial stereotypes and lack any supporting data. See generally Affidavit of Kenneth B. Clark.

Dr. Gans makes similar observations. He suggests that the Project planners fail to distinguish between the small number of people who actually engage in illegal activities on Forty-Second Street and the larger number of law-abiding black and Hispanic citizens who simply patronize plaintiffs’ theaters but are nonetheless “ominous” to white, middle-class observers. Instead, Dr. Gans concludes, the FEIS falls back on racial stereotyping to justify removing them from the Project area. See generally Affidavit of Herbert J. Gans.

In sum, plaintiffs argue that the condemnation of their theaters does not serve the public purposes that are assigned for it, but rather reflects a governmental attempt to displace a brand of speech and a kind of audience deemed distasteful. The condemnation is therefore argued to violate both the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause.

Defendants do not attempt to refute plaintiffs’ factual allegations point by point. Defendants deny that race or content bias motivates the Project or any of its parts. Beyond that, defendants simply argue that the balance of plaintiffs’ allegations are immaterial in that they go to matters within the discretion of defendants. Defendants argue that other theaters in New York exhibit action and martial arts films and that plaintiffs would only be prevented from relocating by the requirements of the free market. See generally Affidavit of Jay Cohen. Defendants maintain that a link in fact has been demonstrated in the Project’s planning documents between the high-volume business of plaintiffs’ theaters and the heightened crime and loitering of Forty-Second Street. Nevertheless, defendants maintain that the legitimacy of the Project’s goals and methods viewed as a whole should, as it did in G. & A. Books, control the outcome of this case.

DISCUSSION:

Abstention

Defendants urge this court to abstain from deciding the present case on grounds of efficiency, comity, and judicial restraint. This question has been briefed and argued along substantially the same lines as was done in the previously decided cases regarding this project. For the same reasons relied upon by the court before— the importance of the federal rights implicated in the present case and the absence of an adequate, centralized state forum for these claims — the court declines to abstain. See Rosenthal, 605 F.Supp. at 615; G. & A. Books, 604 F.Supp. at 905-06.

Race Discrimination

Defendants seek summary judgment on plaintiffs’ Equal Protection claim on three different grounds: 1) that only rational relationship scrutiny should be applied in any eminent domain case; 2) that plaintiffs lack standing to assert the rights of their minority customers because companies related to plaintiffs sought the contract to operate the theaters under the Project plan; and 3) that plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that a discriminatory purpose and not just a disproportionate racial impact is reflected in the Project plan. Defendants concede that the FEIS shows an awareness that the Project will result in the displacement of a large number of minority moviegoers by a mostly white, upscale Broadway audience. This awareness amounts to “intent” in the sense that one “intends” the natural consequences of one’s actions. However, defendants maintain that plaintiffs have failed to allege facts tending to show that they intend to discriminate against blacks or Hispanics as such. The demographic change is argued to be a side-effect and not a purpose of the Project; the goal is to upgrade the area, but everyone will be welcome in the new facilities.

Defendants’ first two arguments fail to persuade. First, while broad deference generally is due to governmental regulation of land use, Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229, 104 S.Ct. 2321, 2329, 2331, 81 L.Ed.2d 186, 197, 200 (1984); Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 32, 75 S.Ct. 98, 102, 99 L.Ed. 27 (1954), governmental action alleged to infringe fundamental constitutional rights must be carefully examined. Schad v. Borough of Mount Ephraim, 452 U.S. 61, 101 S.Ct. 2176, 68 L.Ed.2d 671 (1981). See G. & A. Books, 604 F.Supp. at 901; cf. Near v. Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 283 U.S. 697, 708, 51 S.Ct. 625, 628, 75 L.Ed. 1357 (1931). There is no reason to treat eminent domain any differently from any other basic governmental power; government may no more effect an unconstitutional purpose through eminent domain than through zoning, injunctions, criminal prosecution, or any other method.

Second, although plaintiffs generally lack standing to assert the rights of third parties, Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 499, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2205, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975), this case falls squarely within a firmly established exception: “[Vjendors and those in like positions have been uniformly permitted to resist efforts at restricting their operations by acting as advocates for the rights of third parties who seek access to their market or function.” Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 195, 97 S.Ct. 451, 456, 50 L.Ed.2d 397 (1976). Here, as in Craig, plaintiffs will suffer sufficient injury in fact to guarantee adverseness and to satisfy constitutionally based standing requirements. Id. at 194, 97 S.Ct. at 455.

Moreover, plaintiffs do not forfeit their ability to assert the rights of their patrons simply because another company with which they may be affiliated has sought to participate in the Forty-Second Street Project by submitting a bid to operate the converted theaters. Plaintiffs have made clear their desire to continue to operate the theaters on the present basis. Their submission of a proposal under the threat of condemnation must be characterized as prudent self-protection and not as “selling out” the interests of those they seek to represent. The court rejects defendants’ standing argument.

Plaintiffs have a more difficult time, however, rebutting defendants’ third argument. In the absence of an explicit racial classification, plaintiffs must show a discriminatory purpose on the part of defendants in order to prevail on their Equal Protection claim. Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256, 272, 99 S.Ct. 2282, 2292, 60 L.Ed.2d 870 (1979). Mere awareness of disproportionate impact or consequences, as defendants argue, does not establish discriminatory purpose. Id. at 279, 99 S.Ct. at 2296. However, there is no requirement that racial bias be the sole or even primary motivation, so long as it is an actual purpose of the governmental action, rather than a mere by-product. Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 265-66, 97 S.Ct. 555, 563-64, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977).

Plaintiffs arguably have pleaded sufficient discriminatory intent to survive a motion to dismiss the complaint. See Complaint at paragraph 49. They have failed, however, in the face of this motion for summary judgment, to allege specific facts tending to support their theory. The affidavits of Professors Clark and Gans, while presenting eloquent and perhaps persuasive arguments against the Project on the basis of social policy, do little to satisfy plaintiffs’ burden. Evidence that defendants, in formulating a plan which undeniably intends to attract more affluent consumers to Times Square, may have fallen prey to stereotypical thinking in characterizing the current population of Times Square, does not prove that defendants seek to remove blacks and Hispanics as blacks and Hispanics. There is no denying that this is a class- biased plan. The City has made a policy decision to turn Times Square into an upscale business and entertainment center. Discrimination based on wealth, however, does not pose the same sort of constitutional problems as does discrimination based on suspect classifications such as race or alienage. See San Antonio Ind. School Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973). In seeking to upgrade Times Square, this Project will have an undeniable incidental impact on blacks and Hispanics, who comprise a disproportionate segment of the low-income population which presumably will be unable to afford many of the facilities in the completed Project area. This result may reflect dubious social policy but it does nothing under present law to establish racist purpose and therefore is not cognizable by this court.

In short, there is nothing in this record to suggest that defendants seek to exclude black or Hispanic people simply because they are black or Hispanic. A bare allegation with no support is insufficient to create a triable issue of material fact. Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiffs’ racial discrimination claim therefore is granted.

First Amendment

The parties agree that the court’s First Amendment analysis in this case should be guided by the court’s previous opinion in G. & A. Books. They differ, of course, on the outcome of that analysis. As in G. & A. Books, the court will evaluate the condemnation of plaintiffs’ theaters under both the prior restraint analysis of Near v. Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 283 U.S. 697, 51 S.Ct. 625, 75 L.Ed. 1357 (1931), and its progeny and the four part test of United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367, 88 S.Ct. 1673, 20 L.Ed.2d 672 (1968), which examines the impact on speech of legitimate government regulation aimed at non-speech goals. See G. & A. Books, 604 F.Supp. at 908-09.

Plaintiffs argue vigorously that the condemnation of their theaters amounts to an unconstitutional prior restraint. Plaintiffs allege that they are being singled out because theirs are the only buildings to be condemned but not torn down. They point to the many hostile comments toward their films which are undeniably scattered throughout the Project’s documentation and argue for an inference that suppressing their speech is a goal of the Project. In the alternative, plaintiffs argue that the condemnation fails the O’Brien test in that it is unnecessarily suppressive of speech in light of the government interests served. They maintain that the Project will cut off access for most New Yorkers to low-cost martial arts films and that the Project's legitimate goals of preserving historic buildings and supporting culture could be served without forcing out their theaters.

Defendants maintain that any remaining factual disputes over the goals or impact of the Project are immaterial. They insist that there is no evidence to show that ridding the area of plaintiffs’ films is a goal of the project rather than merely a predicted side effect. Defendants further argue that plaintiffs’ buildings are being condemned neutrally along with hundreds of others, that less restrictive alternatives would not fully serve the goals of the Project, and that, in any event, having found legitimate the overall purposes of the Project, this court must defer to the government defendants on the details thereof.

The court concludes, for reasons substantially similar to those advanced in G. & A. Books, that the instant condemnation passes constitutional muster under both First Amendment tests. The discussion below will focus on issues and arguments new to this case.

In G. & A. Books, 604 F.Supp. at 909, the court reviewed cases in which the government had singled out a particular class of speech for a special burden amounting to a prior restraint. See, e.g., Near, 283 U.S. at 702, 51 S.Ct. at 626; Show-World Center, Inc. v. Walsh, 438 F.Supp. 642, 652 (S.D.N.Y.1977).

By contrast, in this case, several hundred businesses in a 13-acre area will be shut down, across the board, and a few of them will be adult uses. Plaintiffs’ businesses will be closed in a neutral fashion along with all the others. Plaintiffs cannot and do not argue that their buildings are being singled out for condemnation when whole blocks of commercial buildings are being demolished. The mere fact that their speech will be burdened by this overall condemnation is not enough to make out a prior restraint, because that would prove too much; it would give businesses engaging in protected speech virtual immunity from land use changes.

G. & A. Books, 604 F.Supp. at 909.

The major distinction in this case is that plaintiffs’ buildings, although condemned, will remain standing. That is a distinction without a difference, however, because the effect on plaintiffs will be exactly the same — they will lose their buildings — and the effect on their free speech will be identical whether the buildings are renovated or razed. Were defendants to bulldoze plaintiffs’ buildings along with the commercial properties whose condemnations were upheld in G. & A. Books and Rosenthal, this would be precisely the same case. The condemnation does not become a prior restraint simply because defendants choose to re-use rather than destroy the condemned structures.

As in G. & A. Books, the court must focus here on the overall goals and methods of the Project. The Project calls for the condemnation of hundreds of different businesses, including those of plaintiffs, in service of legitimate, lawful goals: to upgrade the Times Square area by bringing in upscale offices, businesses, and entertainment, to preserve historic theaters and to restore them to their previous use for live theater. The court need not endorse these goals in order to hold that they are legitimate and content neutral. Against this general picture, plaintiffs have failed to set forth material factual disputes which might support their claim of being singled out for content-based suppression.

Plaintiffs do make a spirited case that the Project’s plan to convert their buildings for live theater use is historically, socially, and economically unwise. However, our concern is only that governmental goals are legitimate, not that they are positive, well thought out, or well served by the plan at hand. Unless plaintiffs could allege in good faith, as they cannot here, that the purposes put forth by the government are a sham, arguments directed at the wisdom of the Project are insufficient in and of themselves to create a triable issue of material fact as to whether the true goal of the condemnation is to suppress plaintiffs’ speech. Moreover, mere hostility to speech which will be incidentally burdened by a Project that has other primary purposes is insufficient, and that is all plaintiffs can claim to show. There is no evidence suggesting an overall attempt to restrict public access to martial arts or action films. All that is shown is an attempt to remove an unusual concentration of high-volume, low-priced theaters from a two-block area as part of an overall reshaping of the Times Square area in a more rarefied and affluent image. The plan is unquestionably geared towards the wealthier classes, and as such is subject to criticism in the public arena. The Project may not be the best approach to the problems of Times Square, but that does not make it a prior restraint on protected speech.

There is, in short, no evidence of a desire on the part of the government defendants to silence plaintiffs because of the message of their films or even to reduce public access to these films, except as an incident of changing the overall socio-economic makeup of the immediate Times Square area. In a constitutional sense, therefore, plaintiffs’ speech is not being “singled out”.

Plaintiffs argue that since the Project goals speak of “upgraded” movie use which may be allowed on an interim basis in the converted theaters, see FEIS at S-3, 2-140, removal of plaintiffs constitutes content control. Defendants’ decision to permit the temporary exhibition of movies in some theaters until economically feasible live uses are found does not necessarily render unconstitutional the otherwise legitimate goal of promoting live theater as part of a unified plan to redevelop the area. Constitutional problems involving future content control may be lurking in the term “upgraded”, but this does not present a controversy ripe for the court’s determination. See G. & A. Books, 604 F.Supp. at 912-13. No content controls are being placed on plaintiffs. Their buildings are simply being condemned along with hundreds of others in the Project area.

Although the court concludes that the condemnation of the theaters as part of the Forty-Second Street Development Project will not act as a prior restraint upon plaintiffs’ speech, further analysis is warranted under the four-part test of United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367, 88 S.Ct. 1673, 20 L.Ed.2d 672 (1968), which has been useful to courts seeking to gauge the incidental impact on protected speech of government land use plans aimed at non-speech goals. See G. & A. Books, 604 F.Supp. at 908-09; see also Schad v. Borough of Mount Ephraim, 452 U.S. 61, 71 n. 10, 72, 101 S.Ct. 2176, 2184 n. 10, 2185, 68 L.Ed.2d 691 (1981); Young v. American Mini Theatres, 427 U.S. 50, 78-81, 96 S.Ct. 2440, 2456-58, 49 L.Ed.2d 310 (1976) (Powell, J., concurring); see generally Note, Pornography, Padlocks, and Prior Restraints: The Constitutional Limits of the Nuisance Power, 58 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 1478, 1513-18 (1983).

Under the O’Brien test, governmental regulation that has a marginal impact on protected speech is constitutional if it is “within the constitutional power of the government,” if it serves “an important or substantial governmental interest,” if that interest is “unrelated to the suppression of free expression,” and if the resulting curtailment of speech is “no greater than is essential to the furtherance of that interest.” O'Brien, 391 U.S. at 377, 88 S.Ct. at 1679. After examining the facts of this case, and in light of the analysis of G. & A. Books, the court finds that the challenged aspect of the Project is constitutional under O’Brien.

The planned condemnation of plaintiffs’ theaters is certainly within the constitutional power of the government, satisfying the first prong of the O’Brien test. Condemnation for purposes of urban renewal has long been recognized as a proper use of the state’s police power. Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 33-34, 75 S.Ct. 98, 102-03, 99 L.Ed. 27 (1954). The New York State Urban Development Corporation Act authorizes the state to use condemnation to further a wide variety of legitimate purposes. New York Unconsol.Laws section 6251 et seq. (McKinney 1979).

The second and third parts of the O’Brien test also are satisfied whether one examines the overall goals of the Project, as the court believes is appropriate, or only the state purposes underlying the condemnation of plaintiffs’ theaters. It is beyond cavil that Times Square suffers from extraordinary blight and that this Project, whatever its merits, represents an attempt to deal with this blight in a radical and all-encompassing way. A major strategy of the Project is to promote uses within the Project area that will attract an upscale audience, including live theater and upgraded retail stores and restaurants, with the ultimate goals of reducing violent crime, drug dealing, and prostitution, strengthening property values and the tax base, and supporting the theater industry and tourism in the area. Viewed broadly, these are clearly substantial goals and they are just as clearly not related to suppressing speech.

Condemning plaintiffs’ theaters and replacing their current fare with live theater, retail, and other uses serves these legitimate, non-speech goals by reducing the volume of traffic in the theaters, by preserving historic theaters and turning them into new venues for live theater, and by creating new uses which will attract more affluent consumers. The preservation of historic structures is certainly a legitimate and constitutional goal of government, Penn Central Transp. Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104, 129, 98 S.Ct. 2646, 2661, 57 L.Ed.2d 631 (1978), as is support of cultural institutions. Hotel Dorset Co. v. Trust For Cultural Resources, 46 N.Y.2d 358, 372, 385 N.E.2d 1284, 413 N.Y.S.2d 357, 364 (1978). Again, the court will not consider how well these goals are served by the present plan, only that the plan actually does, to some significant degree, serve state purposes that are substantial and unrelated to the suppression of speech. Even accepting plaintiffs’ factual allegations that their theaters are safe and viable and that the City’s plan is ill-conceived, these legitimate state interests are still served by the condemnation.

Moreover, under the second and third prongs of the O’Brien test, it is of no moment that defendants may not have demonstrated a strong connection between the operation of the theaters and blight in Times Square. As this court said in G. & A. Books, Id. at 910 (emphasis in original). Similarly, in the present case, plaintiffs’ theaters will be condemned along with hundreds of other businesses in the area. It is not necessary that the government demonstrate a nexus between the theaters themselves and blight in Times Square — only that the condemnation of the theaters serve an important state purpose unrelated to the suppression of speech. The court finds that it does, and that plaintiffs’ factual allegations therefore are not material.

[I]t is irrelevant that plaintiffs have not been proven to cause blight. Neither have many of the restaurants, retail shops, and other businesses that will be displaced by the Project. The Project does not purport to shut down only adult uses on the basis of blight findings about such uses alone; it looks towards a wholesale clearing and renovation of entire city blocks on the basis of a well-supported overall finding of blight — blight that is caused by many things other than adult uses.

Contrary to plaintiffs’ assertions, Young v. American Mini Theatres, 427 U.S. 50, 96 S.Ct. 2440, 49 L.Ed.2d 310 (1976), does not require a different result. Plaintiff notes that it was important to both the plurality in Young, 427 U.S. at 71 n. 34, 96 S.Ct. at 2453 n. 34, and the pivotal concurrence of Justice Powell, id. at 82, 96 S.Ct. at 2458, that the state had demonstrated a direct relationship between adult theaters and blight. Young, however, dealt with a zoning plan which distinguished between theaters on the basis of content and limited the possible locations for adult theaters. The Court upheld this facially content-based scheme because evidence linking adult theaters and blight provided a substantial governmental interest unrelated to content which justified classifying theaters along these lines.

It does not follow from Young that only theaters causing blight may be condemned. All that is necessary is that substantial reasons other than content be given for government action incidentally affecting speech. Such reasons have been provided in the case at bar, and the court therefore finds that the second and third prongs of the O’Brien test have been satisfied.

The fourth part of the test essentially requires the court to balance the state interests served against the marginal impact on speech caused by the challenged governmental action. This analysis does not require that the state have chosen the least restrictive alternative, as is required under the “strict scrutiny” test, only that substantially less restrictive alternatives to achieve the same ends were not available which would render the challenged plan unnecessarily suppressive of speech. In other words, if the legitimate state interest would be served less effectively without the proposed regulation, then the incidental impact on speech is permissible under O’Brien. See United States v. Albertini, — U.S. ---, 105 S.Ct. 2897, 2906, 86 L.Ed.2d 536 (1985).

The court has already found that several important state interests are served by the Project and the planned condemnation of plaintiffs’ theaters. It is equally clear that without the condemnation, many of these interests would be served less effectively. Although the state interests in preserving the theaters’ historic facades and reducing loitering in front of the theaters perhaps could be achieved, without condemning the theaters, through the use of such methods as landmark laws and police sweeps, such methods would not fulfill the Project’s broader goal of radically altering the face of Times Square by providing new uses and attracting new people to the area. Changing the use of the theaters clearly will make at least some contribution to these goals, and certainly fits in with the overall Project plan.

Against the substantial state interests served by the Project, the court must weigh the marginal effect on plaintiffs’ speech. Relying on the undisputed facts in this record, the court finds that this impact is minimal. Plaintiffs have attempted to prove that they will be unable to relocate but have not alleged facts tending to show that this inability is the result of government suppression. Any difficulty that plaintiffs will have in relocating is the result either of content-neutral zoning which affects all theaters, or of the operation of the free market. The constitution does not require that plaintiffs be able to duplicate their present favorable economic conditions, only that government not restrict plaintiffs’ ability to find new outlets. See Young, 427 U.S. at 77-79, 96 S.Ct. at 2455-57 (Powell, J. concurring). As in Young, myriad locations exist in Manhattan and the City at large for new theaters and scores of theaters now exist which could be devoted to the kinds of films that plaintiffs exhibit. If, as plaintiffs allege, there is a significant demand for their product, the market will provide an outlet.

In any event, in the absence of severe government restrictions on plaintiffs’ right to relocate, speculation regarding plaintiffs’ economic ability to relocate is simply irrelevant. The only restriction placed on plaintiffs’ speech is their exclusion from a small sliver of midtown Manhattan. This incidental burden is comparatively minor given the substantial state interests served by the Project. The court concludes, therefore, that the condemnation of plaintiffs’ theaters is not unnecessarily suppressive of free speech and therefore satisfies the final prong of the O’Brien test.

Plaintiffs have failed to identify disputed questions of fact material to their claim that defendants’ plan to condemn plaintiffs’ theaters is a prior restraint or is unnecessarily suppressive under O’Brien. Defendants have demonstrated that the condemnation serves important governmental interests unrelated to the suppression of speech. Plaintiffs’ alleged disputes relate mainly to questions of policy that are beyond the scope of this court’s permitted review. In the absence of disputed facts of constitutional significance, the court finds that defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Defendants’ motion for summary judgment therefore is granted.

      . Defendants’ motion originally was briefed and argued as one to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Following oral argument on February 1, 1985, the court concluded that the motion was best considered as one for summary judgment. In orders dated February 5 and February 13, 1985, the court set a schedule for submission of supplemental briefs addressing the legitimacy of the Project’s purposes and whether the condemnation amounted to a prior restraint. Both sides have taken advantage of the opportunity to present substantial new factual material, which the court has thoroughly reviewed. In addition, a second oral argument was heard on June 28, 1985.

      . Plaintiffs allege that the Project violates the Equal Protection Clause on both race discrimination and First Amendment grounds. The court will address the First Amendment issues in this case in the following section; this section will focus on plaintiffs' claim of racial discrimination.

      . Plaintiffs’ claim that the Project violates the Equal Protection Clause by discriminating on the basis of speech content presents essentially the same issues as those addressed by the two-part analysis adopted by the court. If the Project does not constitute a prior restraint and satisfies the O’Brien test, then it follows that it does not violate the Equal Protection Clause since any disparate impact on plaintiffs’ speech will have been justified by legitimate, non-speech state interests.


source: Caselaw Access Project

author: DANIEL HOLCOMBE THOMAS, District Judge.

license: Public Domain

text:
    Complaint of CHEVRON TRANSPORT CORPORATION, as Owner of the SS ROBERT WATT MILLER in an action for exoneration from or limitation of liability. Vivian Marie SELF, as Administratrix of the Estate of Danny Joe Self, deceased, et al., Plaintiff, v. GREAT LAKES DREDGE & DOCK CO., a corporation, Defendant/Third Party Plaintiff, v. CHEVRON SHIPPING COMPANY, Third Party Defendant; GREAT LAKES DREDGE & DOCK CO., a corporation, Plaintiff, v. CHEVRON SHIPPING COMPANY and Italia Societe Per Az Di Nav., Defendants.
    Nos. 75-114-Civ-J-M, 75-126-Civ-J-M and 77-635-Civ-J-M.
    United States District Court, M.D. Florida, Jacksonville Division.
    July 19, 1985.

      Leonard C. Jaques, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiff V. Self.
    Dewey R. Villareal, Tampa, Fla., Courtney W. Stanton, Jacksonville, Fla., for Great Lakes.
    G. Morton Good, Miami, Fla., Richard Rumrell, Jacksonville, Fla., for Chevron.
   DANIEL HOLCOMBE THOMAS, District Judge.

These consolidated cases were heard by the Court sitting without a jury between January 28 and February 7, 1985. The matter was taken under advisement on April 5, 1985, and after due consideration the Court issues the following opinion: BACKGROUND

On February 5, 1975, the Robert Watt Miller struck the dredge Alaska and barge GL 142 in The Drummond Creek Range Channel of the St. Johns River, Jacksonville, Florida. As a result of the accident, the Alaska, the GL 142 and the Robert Watt Miller sustained damage. A number of crew members on the dredge were injured; two lost their lives.

Each of the death and personal injury claimants instituted separate actions against their employer, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. Great Lakes in turn filed third-party complaints in each action against Chevron Shipping Co., as operator of the Robert Watt Miller. Great Lakes also filed suit against Chevron Shipping Co. and Italia Societe Per Az Di Nav. As owner of the Robert Watt Miller, Chevron Transport Corporation filed a complaint seeking exoneration from or limitation of liability.

Both Chevron Shipping and Chevron Transport settled with all of the personal injury and death claimants. Judge Melton ordered the third-party complaint severed and the case in chief was tried before a jury. The jury heard the case in Jacksonville and returned a verdict in favor of Great Lakes. The Eleventh Circuit reversed that verdict and remanded the case for a new trial. Ebanks v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 688 F.2d 716, 719 (11th Cir.1982).

Following the Ebanks decision this court consolidated all pending actions for a trial to be held beginning January 28, 1985. The only case pending regarding death or personal injury is the case by Vivian Self, as Administratrix of the Estate of Danny Self, (a jury was waived in this ease); Great Lakes settled with the other plaintiffs. In addition, the liability issues only were tried as between Great Lakes and the Chevron Companies; damages therefrom will be tried at a later date.

PARTIES

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. was the owner and operator of the dredge Alaska and the barge GL 142. The Alaska was a non-self propelled cutterhead dredge 208 feet in length, 46 feet in breadth and 11.8 feet in depth. On February 5, 1975, she was drawing 9 feet forward and 9 feet aft. The GL 142 was a non-self propelled barge 160 feet in length, 52 feet in breadth and 8.6 feet in depth. On February 5, she was drawing 3 feet forward and 3 feet aft. The Alaska’s after end was connected to the forward end of the GL 142 by couplings on both the port and starboard sides. On the after end of the GL 142 was a structure consisting of two spuds such that each spud could be lowered or raised to hold the flotilla in position.

Chevron Transport Corporation was the owner of the Robert Watt Miller. The vessel was being operated under a management agreement with Chevron Shipping Company. The Robert Watt Miller was an oil tanker of Liberian registry 625 feet in length, 84 feet in breadth and 44 feet in depth. On February 5, she was drawing 24 feet forward and 28 feet aft.

Danny Joe Self, plaintiffs decedent, was a seaman and member of the crew of the Alaska. On February 5, 1975, he lost his life while engaged in the performance of seaman’s duties for his employer, Great Lakes. Vivian Marie Self, the decedent’.s widow brings her action as Administratrix of the Self Estate and as mother and natural guardian of the couple’s children, Deana, age 4 at the time of the accident and Danny, Jr. age 2 at that time.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

Great Lakes entered into a contract with the United States Corps of Engineers for the purpose of deepening the channel leading to the Jacksonville, Florida, harbor. On November 27, 1974, the Coast Guard published a local notice to mariners to give notice to shipping interests that the Alaska would be engaged in dredging operations in the St. Johns River. The operation was a project to dredge the channel to 38 feet. Dredging was begun in the Drummond Creek Range on December 26, 1974.

The Robert Watt Miller came to Jacksonville from Port Everglades, Florida arriving on February 5, 1975, at approximately 7:12 A.M. Pursuant to compulsory pilotage laws, Pilot Henry Steele boarded the Robert Watt Miller in order to take the vessel to the Eastern Seaboard docks to discharge a cargo of oil. Due to restricted visibility in the early morning, Steele waited until 9:48 A.M. to prepare to enter the harbor. After the pilot checked the navigational gear and synchronized the clocks, the anchors were raised at 10:27 A.M.; the Robert Watt Miller then proceeded inbound. At this time the current was ebbing toward the mouth of the river at about 1.5 knots. Visibility was good.

The Robert Watt Miller passed Fulton Cut at 11:29 full ahead. The speed was reduced to half ahead at 11:40 and the vessel passed Blount Island. The speed was reduced to dead slow and stop at 11:43 as the tanker passed Blount Island Terminal. At 11:45 the speed was increased to full ahead.

As the Robert Watt Miller proceeded around Dame Point Turn approaching Bro-ward Point Turn, Captain Steele became aware of the Tug Warrengas ahead. The tug was pushing a loaded barge proceeding upstream. The Robert Watt Miller was put full ahead and passed the Warrengas on the port side.

Knowing the dredge Alaska was in the area Captain Steele called the dredge on VHF radio channel 13. The exact words spoken by Steele and the response of the leverman aboard the dredge are unknown. The conversation was such that the Robert Watt Miller informed the Alaska that she was a tanker drawing approximately 28 feet and would arrive in the vicinity of the Alaska within 20 minutes. The Alaska responded giving the tanker permission to make a port to port (one whistle) passing. At the time of this conversation neither vessel could see the other because of the obstruction caused by Quarantine Island.

After making his final turns to line up in Drummond Creek Range, Captain Steele, for the first time saw where the dredge was positioned. He concluded that the stern of the dredge’s idler barge was encroaching into his side of the channel by 25 feet. Steele reached this conclusion using reference to a church steeple and a notch in some trees. Neither Steele nor the Master checked the Robert Watt Miller’s position with respect to the Range marked by the Coast Guard nor was a compass bearing taken on the Alaska. To remedy the perceived problem of the encroachment and to provide ample passing space the pilot set a course close to the north side of the channel.

The leverman onboard the Alaska saw the bow of the Robert Watt Miller at about 12:02. At that time he stopped dredging and swung the dredge to a position such that the starboard bow of the dredge was to the south bank of the channel.

In the vicinity of the Gulf dock, located approximately at buoy # 59, the pilot and master of the Robert Watt Miller noticed a decided sheer of the vessel to port. Consequently, an order of 10 degrees right rudder was given. The sheer continued and an order of 20 degrees right rudder was given. The master then initiated an order of hard starboard rudder and full ahead on the engines. That order was given at 12:09 but the sheer continued so a full astern was ordered at 12:11.

Immediately before impact the pilot of the Robert Watt Miller radioed a warning to the Alaska informing the leverman to clear the dredge and barge of all personnel. He also blew the warning whistle. At about the same time the operator of the dredge’s tender tug Tarheel State, lying on the port side of the Alaska, saw the danger, sounded the tug’s whistle and moved out of the path of the Robert Watt Miller.

Between 12:10 and 12:12, the time having not been exactly established, the bow of the Robert Watt Miller struck the Alaska. The bow first contacted the dredge’s port anchor boom, then struck the hull about 100 feet aft of the bow. The impact broke the coupling between the Alaska and the GL 142. The Robert Watt Miller slipped down the side of the Alaska, came into contact with the Barge thus causing her to be loosened from the connections to the dredge. The momentum of the Robert Watt Miller continued forward along the GL 142 and rolled the barge over on her starboard side. The Robert Watt Miller’s engines were stopped at 12:13.

When the Barge rolled over several crewmen were injured; two, including the plaintiff’s decedent, lost their lives. The plaintiff’s decedent, Danny Self, was a deckhand aboard the Alaska. Around noon on February 5, 1975, he and other crew members gathered in the mess hall for lunch. One minute prior to collision one of Self’s fellow crewmen went to the door of the mess hall, saw the Robert Watt Miller and yelled out to the others. At this time the men ran from the mess hall aft to the port side to a ladder near the stern. They continued down the ladder to the main deck and across the gangway to the barge. The men had just reached the barge when the impact of the Robert Watt Miller rolled it over. Eleven crew members were cast into the water.

Immediately, rescue attempts were made by the dredge’s tender tugs, the survey boat Canaveral and a small fishing boat. In addition, crew members of the Alaska and the Robert Watt Miller threw life rings and flotation equipment attempting to save the men in the water.

Burke, a crew member of the Alaska, had grabbed his life jacket from the handrail when leaving the mess hall. He attempted to save Self by holding on to him, but the suction and current proved stronger than the grips of Self and Burke. Self was pulled away and lost his life.

JURISDICTION

This Court has jurisdiction of the subject matter under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, this being an action at law by virtue of Section 20 of the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688, and under 28 U.S.C. § 1333. This Court has jurisdiction of all of the parties.

THE SHEER

The fact is apparent that the immediate cause of this accident was the sheer to the port encountered by the Robert Watt Miller just west of the Gulf Docks in the Drummond Creek Cut. The causes leading up to this sheer were several, the combination of which contributed to cause the accident.

As the evidence at trial showed, the sheer that developed moments prior to collision was sudden. However, if the navigator did not properly navigate his vessel either before or after the sheer occurred then the unexpected nature of the sheer does not operate so as to exonerate the navigator. Seaboard Airline R.R. v. Pan American Petroleum & Transport Co., 199 F.2d 761, 765-66 (5th Cir.1952). Further, a sheer by one vessel into another resulting in collision raises a rebuttable presumption of negligence on the part of the sheering vessel. Atkins v. Lorentzen, 328 F.2d 66, 68 (5th Cir.1964). This presumption can be overcome by a showing that the cause of the accident in no way resulted from a failure of due care on the part of the sheering vessel. Id. at 69.

Viewing the events prior to and during the sheer of the Robert Watt Miller, the court is convinced that certain acts of negligence by the navigators contributed to the cause of the sheer and consequently the cause of the collision. To begin with, the speed of the tanker through Broward Point Turn heading toward the Alaska was excessive. This excessive speed had a dual effect upon the sheer. First, if the Robert Watt Miller had not been traveling at an excessive speed, the evidence showed that the sheer probably would not have developed. Secondly, had the navigators been traveling at a prudent speed, sufficient reverse power would have been available to break the sheer if or when it did occur.

In addition to the speed, the court must consider the navigators’ failure to use the anchors in an attempt to break the sheer. From the evidence presented at trial, it is clear that the ship’s anchors, or at least the starboard one, would have been helpful in breaking the sheer or at least reducing the impact of the collision.

Finally, there remains the question of where the ship was being conned with respect to the proximity of the northern bank of the channel. Pilot Steele placed the tanker far to her starboard (northern bank) because of his perception of the position of the Alaska. Evidence at trial indicated that the range used by Steele tended to direct the vessel well over toward the right hand (northern) side of the channel, which was a causal factor in the sheer and ultimately the collision.

In view of the preceeding, it is clear that the navigation of the Robert Watt Miller both before and during the sheer contributed in causing and/or amplifying the effect of the sheer. Hence, the presumption of negligence attributed to the sheering vessel has not been successfully rebutted.

NEGLIGENCE OF THE MASTER OF THE ROBERT WATT MILLER

At all material times the Robert Watt Miller was under the command of Captain Mario Stillitano, an Italian national. From the time the tanker’s anchors were raised on the morning of February 5, 1975, until the time of the collision, Captain Stillitano was on the bridge observing the navigation of the vessel. During the inbound voyage the master delegated to compulsory pilot Henry Steele the duty of giving orders to the helmsman and to the engine room.

Since the navigators of the Robert Watt Miller included both Captain Stillitano and the compulsory pilot, Captain Steele, the court must consider several factors. As a threshold consideration the court notes that when a vessel is being operated by a compulsory pilot, the vessel is liable in rem only; the owner has no in person-am liability unless there is some personal involvement or negligence that can be attributed to the master or crew. The China, 74 U.S. (7 Wall) 53, 19 L.Ed. 67 (1868). However, the exemption from in person-am liability applies only “where the pilot is actually in charge of the vessel, and solely in fault.” Id. at 64. The China also holds that the party claiming the exemption has the burden of proving “the pilot was in fault, and that there was no fault on the part of the officers or crew, ‘which might have been in any degree conducive to the damage.’ ” Id.

In the collision that occurred in this matter, the pilot was negligent; however, the master of the Robert Watt Miller was also guilty of negligence. The evidence indicates that Captain Stillitano was not even aware of the presence of the Alaska dredging in Drummond Creek Range until minutes prior to the collision. This is true in spite of a notice to mariners published by the Coast Guard on November 27, 1974. A reasonable shipmaster preparing to enter an unfamiliar channel would in the exercise of due care review the notices to mariners and ascertain from the pilot other information about extraordinary situations. The master’s failure to avail himself to this information prevented him from skillfully supervising the pilot’s conning of the ship in this situation. This negligence in turn led to the chain of events that caused the collision.

Further evidence of negligence by the master is seen in his failure to determine the precise location of his ship with respect to the Alaska and the available channel. The dredge was positioned at an angle which made it difficult for the navigators to determine the exact location of the flotilla, consequently the pilot set a course too far to the right bank. Captain Stillitano should have used due care and checked the position of the Alaska and GL 142 with respect to the position of the Robert Watt Miller by use of recognized and available navigational equipment instead of depending on Pilot Steele’s use of bearings on antiquated land fixtures. This negligence was a contributing cause of this collision. Even though it is acceptably sound practice for a captain to rely on the judgment of a compulsory pilot, there come times which not only justify but require the captain in fulfilling his duty to supervise the pilot’s conning of the vessel to question the soundness of this judgment.

Chevron has failed to establish that the faults of the master were not “conducive to the damage” in this matter. As a result, in personam liability lies against those in charge of the Robert Watt Miller.

THE POSITION OF THE ALASKA/GL 142

Prior to the commencement of dredging operations Great Lakes’ project engineer, Martin Snow, established a “digging range” using conventional civil engineering land surveying techniques. The digging range was parallel to and fifty feet to the southeast of the Drummond Creek navigation range established by the Coast Guard. To mark this digging range a laser beam was used. The dredge and barge could be positioned with its longitudinal centerline 50 feet south of the centerline of the channel by putting the vessel’s head gyro on the channel range and then standing on the centerline of the vessel looking aft to locate the laser beam and shifting the dredge to place the beam midship of the dredge. The horizontal dispersion of the laser beam was four inches per mile.

Great Lakes checked the operation of the laser transmitter at least daily. On the morning in question the position of the dredge was checked with respect to the laser beam sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 A.M. The court is convinced that the equipment was in place, in order and functioning as it was intended at all material times.

At trial a dispute arose concerning the location of the dredge with respect to the centerline of the channel, that is, whether the dredge was properly aligned on the laser beam. It was uncontroverted that once the Alaska’s leverman saw the Robert Watt Miller come into the dredge’s vicinity, he discontinued dredging and swung the bow of the Alaska to her far starboard bank out of the channel. Neither party presented convincing evidence as to the position of the port quarter of the barge in relation to the centerline of the channel. However, it was established that the swing of the Alaska placed the dredge and barge at an angle occupying the descending half of the channel.

The Pilot Rules for Inland Waters, 33 C.F.R. § 80.26(b), in force at the time in question, required a dredge to “straighten out” within the cut after giving an appreaching vessel the signal that the channel is clear. Clearly, the Alaska and GL 142, lying at an angle, violated this provision. When a statutory provision is violated The Pennsylvania rule is applicable. The Pennsylvania rule shifts the burden of proof to the violator of a statutory rule intended to prevent collisions to show “not merely that her fault might not have been one of the causes, or that it probably was not, but that it could not have been [a cause of the collision].” The Pennsylvania, 86 U.S. (19 Wall) 125, 136, 22 L.Ed. 148 (1873). The rule is not one of liability but shifts the burden of proof as to the causation. Orange Beach Water, Sewer and Fire Protection Authority v. M/V Alva, 680 F.2d 1374, 1381 (11th Cir.1982); Garner v. Cities Service Tankers Corp., 456 F.2d 476, 480 (5th Cir.1972). In determining the boundaries of the rule, the Former Fifth Circuit held that the rule was not meant to require, every vessel guilty of a statutory fault to prove that “its fault could not by any stretch of the imagination have any causal relation to the collision, no matter how speculative, improbable, or remote.” Compania De Maderas De Caibarien v. The Queenston Heights, 220 F.2d 120, 122 (5th Cir.1955).

The angle at which the Alaska and GL 142 was positioned in the Drummond Creek Cut distorted the perception of the navigators of the Robert Watt Miller as the tanker came around Broward Point Turn. Regardless of whether the navigators used Pilot Steele’s method of locating the range or the established ranges the position of the dredge and barge caused problems in the determination of a prudent course to set to safely pass the flotilla. In so stating, the court does not retract its previous holding that the pilot used a faulty range and that he and the master were negligent in failing to use recognized and available navigational equipment to determine the relative positions of the entities involved. Instead, this court holds that the angle at which the Alaska and GL 142 was positioned coupled with the flotilla’s location on the St. John’s River was a contributing cause of this accident. Hence, Great Lakes has not met its burden under The Pennsylvania rule even as by Queenston Heights, supra, standards of showing that the violation of the statutory rule could not have been a cause of the accident.

A related and very serious consideration concerns the fact that the dredge possessed the status of an anchored vessel while the Robert Watt Miller was a moving vessel. See Al Johnson Construction Co. v. S.S. Rio Orinoco, 249 F.Supp. 182, 189 (E.D.Pa.1965). When a moving vessel strikes an anchored one a presumption of negligence arises on the part of the vessel in motion. The Oregon, 158 U.S. 186, 15 S.Ct. 804, 39 L.Ed. 943 (1895); The Victor, 153 F.2d 200 (5th Cir.1946). The moving vessel is solely liable unless she can prove that the accident was caused by the fault of the anchored vessel or that the accident was inevitable. McCready v. Goldsmith, 59 U.S. (18 How.) 89, 15 L.Ed. 288 (1856). In the instant matter fault has been established on the part of the dredge by operation of The Pennsylvania rule. Thus, the court will weigh the presumption of The Pennsylvania and that of The Oregon in determining proportionate fault of the two vessels in question.

EXONERATION FROM/LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Chevron Transport, the owner of the Robert Watt Miller, has filed a complaint seeking to limit its liability to the value of its interest in the vessel pursuant to 46 U.S.C. § 183. In order to determine if a shipowner is entitled to limit its liability, the court must first determine what acts of negligence or conditions of unseaworthiness caused the accident and secondly whether the shipowner had privity or knowledge of same. Farrell Lines Inc. v. Jones, 530 F.2d 7, 10 (5th Cir.1976). The initial burden of proving negligence or unseaworthiness rests with the libellants; the petitioner in limitation has the burden of proving lack of privity or knowledge. Coleman v. Jahncke Service, Inc., 341 F.2d 956, 958 (5th Cir.1965).

As the foregoing discussion illustrates the first part of the test has been met. That is, Great Lakes has proven that Chevron committed various acts of negligence which proximately caused or contributed to the casualty involved here. The weight of the evidence has shown that Chevron allowed its ship, the Robert Watt Miller, to proceed into unfamiliar waters without using ascertainable information to see that the ship’s voyage was carried out in a prudent manner. A primary cause of the collision was the fact that the master could not shoulder his duty of due care in the navigation of the Robert Watt Miller because he was completely unaware of of dredging operations on the St. Johns River until the dredge came into sight, thus, could not intelligently oversee the ship’s inbound voyage. Aware of this fact the court now moves to the question of privity and knowledge; cognizant of the fact that Chevron has the burden of proving lack of privity or knowledge.

As a preliminary matter the court notes that Chevron Transport delegated the duty of operational management of the Robert Watt Miller to Chevron Shipping. In a corporate owner situation privity and knowledge of those to whom management is delegated is also privity and knowledge of the corporate owner. 341 F.2d at 958. Since the present case involves a corporate owned ocean vessel, the question of privity and knowledge is focused on whether the shore based management is aware of or should have been aware of the likelihood of the occurrence happening after the ship is underway. Tittle v. Aldacosta, 544 F.2d 752, 756 (5th Cir.1977); Avera v. Florida Towing Corp. 322 F.2d 155 (5th Cir.1963).

Chevron Shipping undertook the responsibility of distributing to its vessels the applicable notices to mariners. However, the distribution system used was far from adequate and there is no evidence that the notice concerning dredging operations in the St. Johns River channel ever reached the Robert Watt Miller. Chevron Shipping’s port superintendent testified that had he been aware that a dredge was working in the channel he would have ordered tugs to escort the tanker past the dredging operations to its intended berth. Obviously, management personnel at Chevron Shipping should have been aware of the likelihood of an accident. Due to their failure to disseminate this information to those who Chevron had entrusted to navigate their vessels and because Chevron Transport had knowledge of this situation through its corporate manager, Chevron Shipping, it is not entitled to limit its liability. Limitation of liability must be denied.

THE DANNY SELF CLAIM

Danny Self, as a deckhand assigned to work on the dredge Alaska, was a seaman within the meaning of the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688. In bringing a death action on her husband’s behalf, Mrs. Self asserts that Great Lakes was negligent in failing to drill the crew, in failing to provide lifesaving/rescue skiffs and in failing to provide Danny Self with a life jacket and instructions regarding its use.

As a part of its contract with the government to dredge Drummond Creek Range, Great Lakes undertook to abide by the provisions of the Corps of Engineers Safety Manual No. EM 385-1-1. Among the provisions of the Manual was one requiring abandon ship drills, fire drills and man overboard or rescue drills. The evidence at trial clearly indicated that Great Lakes had not complied with such requirements.

Another provision of the Safety Manual required lifesaving or safety skiffs be provided that were ready for launching, with men trained in the launching. This provision further provided that the skiffs be used only for emergencies and lifesaving drills. Great Lakes did not convince the court that this provision had been complied with or that an approved substitute had been allowed by the Corps.

A claim under the Jones Act requires a finding both of a negligent breach of duty and proximate cause. Myles v. Quinn Menhaden Fisheries, Inc., 302 F.2d 146, 150 (5th Cir.1962). The causative element in Jones Act cases is less than the common law standard of proximate cause. Reyes v. Vantage S.S. Co., Inc., 609 F.2d 140, 146 (5th Cir.1980). The question of proximate cause thereunder focuses upon whether the actions of the defendant contributed to the injury even in the slightest degree. Sanford Brothers Boats, Inc. v. Vidrine, 412 F.2d 958, 966 (5th Cir.1969). In addition, the employer’s negligence need not be the sole proximate cause of an injury to result in liability but need merely be a contributing cause of the accident. Spinks v. Chevron Oil Co., 507 F.2d 216, 221 (5th Cir.1975).

In the instant matter the court concludes that the negligent acts of Chevron and Great Lakes were contributing causes in the accident that led to the death of Danny Self. Therefore, the Self interests have met their burden of proving their Jones Act claim. Thus, the court now moves to the issue of recoverable damages.

To begin with, it is necessary to consider certain factors in reaching the award for damages sustained. At the time of his death, Danny Self, age 22, was earning $4.49 per hour on the Alaska. A reasonable assumption is that Mr. Self would have worked 2,080 hours (52 forty-hour work weeks) per year in order to provide for his family. His work upon the dredge would encompass 1,290 hours (32.25 forty-hour work weeks) in one year. Since the loss suffered by Mrs. Self and her children is the loss of income Mr. Self would have provided, in addition to the 1290 hours per year working on the dredge, the court assumes Mr. Self would also work 790 hours per year (19.75 forty hour work weeks) at a job earning minimum wage. [1,290 hours + 790 hours = 2,080 hours or 52 forty-hour work weeks.]

To reach a just award, the salary amount decedent was receiving as a deckhand must be adjusted to reflect the fact that the decedent would have received salary increases and promotions throughout his working life. See generally, Deakle v. John F. Graham & Sons, 756 F.2d 821 (11th Cir.1985). In making various adjustments and assumptions associated therewith, the court has duly considered the testimony of the two economists produced at trial. Accordingly, the court concludes that decedent would have received salary increases of 7.33% per year and that he would have advanced to the level of mate in 1985 and promoted to leverman in 1995 where he would remain until retirement at age 65.

In addition, the court adjusts the decedent’s salary at the time of the accident to reflect the loss of fringe benefits such as pension benefits, health insurance, etc. The court determines the rate of fringe benefits relative to pay is 21.58%. The court further determines that approximately 88% of decedent’s pay per year would be straight time and 12% overtime.

The award for damages to Mrs. Self and the two children must also include their loss of household services that Mr. Self would have performed. This loss is computed from the time of the accident through decedent’s projected life expectancy by estimating the time spent and the value of those services. In addition, the calculation of damages includes a determination of loss of estate or net estate accumulation. On the other side, the court further adjusts the award to reflect the fact that Mr. Self would consume certain funds to maintain his own personal needs. In determining this amount, the court assumes Self consumed 32% of the family income from 1975 to 1985; 27% from 1985 until 1993 and 34% from 1993 through decedent’s life expectancy. This percentage changed due to the ages of the children; that is, after the last child left home, presumably at age 21, Mr. Self would consume more personally.

Therefore, the loss sustained by Mrs. Self and her two children includes: lost of income support, loss of fringe benefits, loss of estate and loss of household services. Consequently, the court concludes that the present day value of the pecuniary loss suffered by Mrs. Self is $414,396.00. Each of the two children would receive support until age 21; thus, the present day value of the pecuniary loss suffered by Deana Self is $68,819.00 and $78,139.00 for Danny Self, Jr.

The above figures are reached from evaluation of the testimony of the two economists who testified at trial.

Apart from the pecuniary loss the court concludes that the decedent’s wife and children suffered certain nonpecuniary losses. That is, the loss of society, love, affection, companionship, guidance and counsel. The court determines this loss to be $70,000.00 to Mrs. Self, $15,000.00 to Deana Self and $15,000.00 to Danny Self, Jr.

APPORTIONMENT OF FAULT

Finally, the court must determine the apportionment of fault between the two parties responsible for the collision. United States v. Reliable Transfer Co., 421 U.S. 397, 95 S.Ct. 1708, 44 L.Ed.2d 251 (1975); Loose v. Offshore Navigation, Inc., 670 F.2d 493 (5th Cir.1982). The court concludes that 70% of the fault is apportioned to Chevron and 30% of the fault is apportioned to Great Lakes.

As the apportionment of fault illustrates, this case involved joint tort feasors, namely, Great Lakes and Chevron. Since Chevron has settled with the Selfs in this case the question of the amount of plaintiff’s recovery arises. The court is of the opinion that the present case is governed by the principles set forth in Leger v. Drilling Well Control, Inc., 592 F.2d 1246 (5th Cir.1979). See Gormly v. Van Ingen, 736 F.2d 624 (11th Cir.1983) (per curiam affirmance applying Leger ).

In Leger an employee was injured while working aboard a barge. He sued three separate defendants but settled with two of the defendants prior to trial. At trial the jury apportioned fault among the defendants and found contributory negligence by the plaintiff. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the trial court’s rendering judgment against the nonsettling defendant to pay only the portion of the total damages proportionate to his percentage of negligence. In reaching this opinion Judge Fay stated: “Whether the plaintiff obtains a favorable or unfavorable settlement, he may only recover once for each wrongdoer’s percentage of fault.” Id. at 1250. He further stated that “[i]f a party decides to try a case, it must be prepared to accept whatever benefits or burdens flow from its decision.” Id. at 1251.

In the present case the court has assessed the plaintiff’s total damages at $661,354.00. Since the plaintiff has settled with and released Chevron but has a viable claim against Great Lakes, then the plaintiff is entitled to recover that portion of the total damages proportionate to Great Lakes’ percentage of fault or $198,406.20. [30% of $661,354.00].

      . The master and all licensed officers on the Robert Watt Miller were Italians and the unlicensed crew were all Indians. Although there was some language barriers between the officers and crew they were sufficiently versed in English as related to nautical and navigational terminology that communications presented no difficulties. The Court is convinced that the crew performed as ordered and that there were no miscommunications between the officers and crew which could have been a contributing cause to this casualty.

      . The court is aware of those cases which require the master to take charge of the vessel only when the pilot is incompetent or incapacitated. See, e.g., Union Co. v. United States, 127 F.2d 771 (5th Cir.1942); Charente Co. v. United States, 12 F.2d 412 (5th Cir.1926); City of Canton [Jure v. United Fruit Co.] 6 F.2d 6 (5th Cir.1925). However, the present case does not reach that issue, but instead focuses on the requirement of The China, that the master must be personally free from negligence.

      . In Ebanks v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 688 F.2d 716 (11th Cir.1982), the court held that Leger was inapplicable “because the settling party, Chevron, was not a member of this suit.” However, it seems that the converse of that statement would be true here since Chevron was represented at the second trial.