Case: 20-30767 Document: 00516114720 Page: 1 Date Filed: 12/02/2021 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED December 2, 2021 No. 20-30767 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk In re: In the Matter of Bonvillian Marine Service, Incorporated, As Owner and Operator of the M/V Miss April in a Cause of Action for Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability ______________________________ Bonvillian Marine Service, Incorporated, Plaintiff—Appellant, versus Dana Lebouef Pellegrin; Junior Joseph Pellegrin, Jr.; Baywater Drilling, L.L.C., Claimants—Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana USDC No. 2:19-CV-14651 Before Barksdale, Engelhardt, and Oldham, Circuit Judges. Kurt D. Engelhardt, Circuit Judge: The Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 provides vessel owners like Appellant Bonvillian Marine Service a means of limiting their vessel’s tort liability to the value of the vessel plus pending freight. See 46 U.S.C. Case: 20-30767 Document: 00516114720 Page: 2 Date Filed: 12/02/2021 No. 20-30767 §§ 30501–30512. Section 30511(a) of the Act requires vessel owners to “bring a civil action in a district court of the United States for limitation of liability . . . within 6 months after a claimant gives the owner written notice of a claim.” After finding Bonvillian’s action untimely under § 30511(a), the district court applied our precedent that “a challenge to the timeliness of a limitation action is a challenge to subject matter jurisdiction” and dismissed the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. See In re Bonvillian Marine Serv., Inc., 502 F. Supp. 3d 1078, 1083–84, 1088 (E.D. La. 2020) (citing In re Eckstein Marine Serv. L.L.C., 672 F.3d 310, 315–16 (5th Cir. 2012)). The district court was not free to overturn the rule we announced in Eckstein. Because subsequent Supreme Court decisions have effected an intervening change in the law that warrants a change in course, we overturn the Eckstein rule today and REVERSE the district court’s adept decision accordingly. I. On January 19, 2019, a vessel belonging to Bonvillian allided with the M/V MISS SADIE ELIZABETH, a crew boat docked on the Mississippi River near Port Sulphur, Louisiana. MISS SADIE ELIZABETH crew member and Appellee Junior Joseph Pellegrin, Jr., sustained a variety of personal injuries in the allision. On August 23, 2019, Pellegrin sued Bonvillian in Louisiana state court. On December 16, 2019, Bonvillian filed a verified limitation complaint in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Baywater Drilling, LLC, the owner of the MISS SADIE ELIZABETH and Pellegrin’s co-Appellee, moved to dismiss Bonvillian’s action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Baywater’s argument for Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) dismissal was straightforward: because Bonvillian filed its limitation action 2 Case: 20-30767 Document: 00516114720 Page: 3 Date Filed: 12/02/2021 No. 20-30767 more than six months after receiving written notice of a claim with a reasonable probability of exceeding the value of its vessel, 1 its action was untimely under 46 U.S.C. § 30511(a) (requiring a limitation action to “be brought within 6 months after a claimant gives the [vessel] owner …
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