The federal court won’t be allowing the owner of a tugboat that sunk in Howe Sound in 2014 to take the Canadian Coast Guard to trial.
Robin Beasse, who owned the Elf tugboat, applied for a summary trial on the basis that the Coast Guard was responsible for the loss of his vessel.
Summary trials are based on written evidence rather than hearing witnesses in court.
The Elf sank in Squamish in January 2014. The Coast Guard raised the boat and towed it before it sank a second time near Point Atkinson, B.C.
It wasn’t raised again, as authorities pegged the cost between $650,000 to $2 million.
In 2018, the federal court ordered Beasse to pay more than $82,000 in cleanup costs as the result of the ship sinking.
After that decision, Beasse asked the court to grant him a summary trial against the Coast Guard with respect to the Elf.
“The plaintiff submits that, when the [Coast Guard] took possession of the Elf after the first sinking, it subsequently became liable for the second sinking,” said Justice Glennys McVeigh, summarizing Beasse’s argument.
In her judgment of the case, published on May 31, McVeigh disagreed with Beasse’s reasoning and dismissed the motion for a summary trial.
“The plaintiff points towards no clear and specific act of incompetency by the [Coast Guard] but, rather, asserts broadly that the [Coast Guard] failed in its duty of care,” said McVeigh, in her judgment.
“I do not see how this argument can succeed.”
McVeigh also said that the Coast Guard acted in a responsible manner.
“It is clear that, in terms of the duty of care, once the [Coast Guard] had taken reasonable steps to determine that theElf was ready to be towed, it had no further duty to ensure that the Elfwas seaworthy,” she said.
“I find that at all times, after taking control of the Elf after the first sinking, the [Coast Guard] acted reasonably and with due diligence.”
She noted that no repairs were done to the boat — which was built in 1902 — since Beasse acquired the vessel from its previous owners in 2012.
“He was aware of wood rot in the superstructure of the Elf,yet did not have it repaired,” McVeigh said.
“Below the waterline, the hull had not been examined or inspected by a marine surveyor or anyone else either before or after it was purchased in October 2012.”
Before sinking, the Elf was moored alongside a barge known as the King Arthur, located in the Mamquam Blind Channel. The barge was owned by Squamish resident Steen Larsen.
According to the judge’s written ruling, Larsen initially identified himself to Coast Guard officials as the owner of the Elf before Beasse arrived at the scene of the first sinking in Squamish. The court found that Larsen had use of the Elf in exchange for looking after it but did not have ownership of the vessel.
