NEW ORLEANS - A company on the hook for nearly $4 million because its barges broke free during Hurricane Ida has posted a $4.5 million bond while its appeal is decided.
American River Transportation Company (ARTCO) asked New Orleans federal judge Wendy Vitter to stay execution of her June judgment, and she did so on Aug. 20. The company has appealed a $3.7 million judgment in favor of the company that salvaged the barges in 2021.
ARTCO has already settled property damages claims in consolidated litigation over the breakaway and now is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to overturn Vitter's salvage judgment.
That judgment was entered June 14 in favor of Lower River and its co-owners, Nicholas Currault and father TOY, about two months after a bench trial. ARTCO owns 11 barge-fleeting facilities on the Lower Mississippi River, including its Tulane Fleet.
Trouble struck when Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2021. Twenty-three ARTCO barges broke free and headed downriver toward Lower River's facility.
Around 10 p.m., one of its boats was struck by an ARTCO barge, causing damage. Nicholas Currault looked upriver and saw more barges making their way toward him.
Currault and his staff used wheel wash from one of their tugs to slow the barges and push them into the mud on the bank of the river, past Lower River's property. They described it as "catching" the barges and running them aground to create dams that acted as anchors.
They did this all night, for about seven hours. They started using mooring lines when the amount of breakaway barges slowed.
It was certainly dangerous work during a hurricane. Capt. Sidney Freeman was lookout on the tug and on a deck and described the weather as "stick your hand out t window on the interstate that's what it felt like on the deck the whole time, being stung by rain the whole time."
He also was to make certain no wires or ropes got tangled with the tub - "We could die, we could flip [if] we're stuck to the barges, flips us over. We go where the barge goes."
Troy Currault's testimony, called emotional by Vitter, said he worried Freeman could die. He said he helped salvage the barges because he is a mariner.
"A mariner does correct for everyone whether it's his barge, a ship's barge, it does not matter. Everybody is the same level. Your equipment is their equipment it's all the same. Try to save it," he testified.
ARTCO employees said they noticed at least one barge break free but did not try to retrieve it because of safety concerns. They also received a call telling them an ARTCO barge had struck a neighbor's dock.
An expert testified to the value of the 23 barges, with some being worth more than $1 million and reaching as high as $2.5 million. The total value was nearly $19 million.
For their efforts, Vitter found Lower River entitled to a salvage award of $3.7 million, much less than Lower River requested. Its $9.4 million demand would have been the highest award in salvage history, and Vitter found that amount would have constituted a "windfall."
ARTCO appealed July 26.