No, the luxury cars aboard the on-fire cargo ship are not legally ‘finders keepers’

A cargo ship carrying expensive luxury cars caught fire in the mid-Atlantic on Feb. 16, forcing the 22 crew members to be rescued by the Portuguese navy.

The ship, the Felicity Ace, was transporting cars made by Porsche, Bentley, and Volkswagen from Germany to the United States, but only made it as far as Portugal’s Azores Islands, where it remains adrift a couple hundred miles off the coast.

One viral tweet pointed to the prized cargo and claimed that because the crew abandoned ship, “under maritime law the ship is now ‘finders keepers.’"

THE QUESTION

Is the Felicity Ace and its cargo of luxury cars now ‘finders keepers’ under maritime law?

THE SOURCES

• Portuguese navy
• MOL, the shipping company
• Twain Braden, Attorney, Thompson Bowie & Hatch
• James Mercante, Admiralty Partner, Rubin Fiorella Friedman & Mercante

THE ANSWER

No, neither the ship nor the luxury cars on board are ‘finders keepers’ under maritime law.

WHAT WE FOUND

There is no ‘finders keepers’ concept in maritime law.

“That old adage, ‘finders keepers,’ that really applies to… what you called ‘dirt law,’” said Twain Braden, an attorney who specializes in maritime law. “The principle is… you found it, there it is… it's presumptively abandoned.”

“Then you have maritime salvage law, which is the opposite,” he said. “You find something floating at sea, and it has value, it's not presumptively abandoned.”

In other words, although the Portuguese navy and the Japanese shipping company MOL (which owns the ship) have both confirmed through press statements that the 22 crew members aboard the Felicity Ace abandoned ship, that doesn’t mean the owners of the ship or of the cars on board forfeited their ownership.

“There has to be an intent for something to be abandoned,” said James Mercante, Admiralty Partner for the law firm Rubin Fiorella Friedman & Mercante. “While the crew abandoned the ship… they abandoned to save themselves. They didn't abandon the ship or the cargo from a legal perspective.”

“The ship is owned by somebody, the ship is managed by somebody, the ship is insured by somebody,” he said, adding the same applies to the luxury vehicles on board.

That means a random boat could not simply go out to the ship and take one of the cars onboard without consequence.

“They certainly could do it, but it would not be legal,” said Braden.

Tugboats and a crew hired by MOL are now on scene to investigate what, if anything, from the ship and its cargo can be saved.

There is one way that, in theory, a random vessel captain could find themselves profiting from this fire: the Law of Salvage. This is a maritime principle by which people are rewarded for helping to save vessels in distress, or their cargo.

“The concept of salvage is that they save the owners from a total loss, they save the insurance company from paying out a total loss,” said Mercante. “So they should be rewarded for that.”

The reward will vary depending on how much risk the salvors took on, the cost of their equipment, their level of skill and effort, and most importantly how much value they actually saved.

“If they don't succeed, they don't get paid,” said Mercante.

But there’s no legal framework for the salvor keeping any of the cargo.

“You don't get to keep the thing,” said Braden. “You don't get to keep the ship or the or the portions that are on board, but you have a claim against the value of those things that you have recovered.”

That value is often determined in court. But in this case, if the salvors are contracted professionals, not just good Samaritans, that’s unlikely.

Salvage is enough of an industry that there are companies at least partially dedicated to it, making amateur salvaging largely impractical in modern times, says Braden.

“The days in which salvors would go out and… hunt for wrecks is… pretty well long gone,” he said.

Still, in theory, if another vessel had decided to try to help save the Felicity Ace or in some way make it easier to put out the fire, they could potentially claim some reward, says Mercante.

“[If] a Good Samaritan comes alongside and assists and actually does something –  let's just say [a] separate company that's not with the salvage crew – gets a lineup and just holds the vessel into the wind so the fire’s blowing off the ship… they can definitely put in for salvage compensation for assisting. And in a major disaster like this, I think, a salvor – even though they have a contract – would welcome the assistance if needed,” he said.

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