A federal judge has found a tugboat captain liable for a $14 million cleanup bill, four years after the derelict fishing boat he was hauling grounded on rocks north of Dillon Beach.
The American Challenger’s 2021 wreck drew attention to the problem of derelict and uninsured boats along the California coast, and some say the late-April ruling could upend longstanding maritime norms that placed liability on owners, not crew.
Though the tugboat’s skipper, Christian Lint, died of natural causes last year, his estate remains a defendant in a lawsuit brought by the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Lint’s brother and the executor of his estate, Robert Stewart Lint II, told other media outlets last week that the judge’s decision could have sweeping consequences.
“It makes every single mate liable for the damages of the vessels he’s on,” he said. He added, “The law generally assesses people who have a financial interest…and are supposed to have gotten the insurance.”
The retired 90-foot American Challenger, once a productive fishing vessel in the Puget Sound, broke free from its towline in rough seas on March 6, 2021, while heading to a scrapyard in Mexico. The vessel drifted ashore near Bodega Bay and became lodged below steep bluffs on an isolated stretch of coastline between Dillon Beach and the Estero Americano.
With both vessels uninsured and their owner, Felix Vera, unable to pay, the Coast Guard led a coalition of federal and state agencies to contain the environmental risk. Crews deployed 4,000 feet of oil-containment boom across the mouth of Tomales Bay, aiming to protect sensitive habitats, including oyster beds.
Crews recovered 14 cubic yards of oiled debris, 760 gallons of contaminated water and 50 gallons of hydraulic fluid, according to court records. Attempts to dismantle the wreck were halted after funds from the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund ran dry.
The lawsuit turned on the question of responsibility under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, passed in the wake of the infamous Exxon Valdez spill. Mr. Lint’s estate argued that, under maritime law, liability rested solely with the ship’s owner—not the tugboat captain or operator.
But in an April 22 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly of the Western District of Washington rejected that argument, finding that the Oil Pollution Act makes “any individual who directs or controls the movement of a vessel” a responsible party when disaster strikes.
“It is undisputed that Lint was the master of the Tug Hunter, the tug that was towing the M/V American Challenger at the time of the incident, and as such, he was in control of the Tug Hunter when the Tug Hunter and M/V American Challenger began to drift,” Judge Zilly wrote.
In the aftermath of the wreck, the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council issued recommendations urging lawmakers to require vessel insurance, which is not a requirement in California as it is in many other states.
Richard James, an Inverness resident and member of the council, hailed the ruling as a rare victory in a system that often allows negligent owners to escape consequences.
“So often, owners just walk away,” Mr. James said. “That just exacerbates the problem because it gives no incentive for future skippers and owners to do the right thing.”
Mr. James, who has visited the wreck site by kayak, described it as a haunting reminder of unfinished work. Though the oil was removed, the bulk of the 200-ton vessel remains decaying on the shoreline.
“Fourteen million dollars later and there’s basically still a whole boat out there, rusting away,” he said. “[They] pump the oil, get the petroleum off the boat—and then they’re done. What about the boat, and what about the contents of the boat that just get pulverized?”
In 2023, the Coast Guard transferred oversight of the wreck to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, which could not be reached for comment.