## Facts

- Texaco Trinidad, Inc. operated a refinery at Point-a-Pierre, Trinidad, and an offshore single-point mooring (SPM) buoy system used to transfer crude oil from large tankers to shore facilities.
- Related Texaco entities, including Texaco International Trader, Inc. and Texaco, Inc., were involved in arranging shipments and owning the crude oil carried to the refinery.
- Afran Transport Company owned the *AFRAN BREEZE*, a deep-draft tanker registered under the flag of Liberia.
- Texaco required vessels using the SPM buoy to take a pilot supplied through Texaco’s buoy/terminal operation.
- On May 7, 1979, the *AFRAN BREEZE* arrived offshore to connect to the SPM buoy and transfer crude oil.
- Texaco supplied the pilot for the approach and mooring operation, but did not provide the pilot with a radio (or comparable equipment) for reliable communication with the ship’s bridge team during the maneuver.
- Communication problems developed between the pilot and the vessel’s crew while the vessel was being brought into position to connect to the buoy.
- During the attempt to secure to the SPM buoy, the *AFRAN BREEZE* struck the buoy and caused damage.
- Texaco sued Afran in personam in admiralty to recover for the buoy damage; the matter was tried for liability only in the published opinion.

## Issues

1. Whether Afran, as owner of the *AFRAN BREEZE*, was liable in personam for damage caused when the vessel struck Texaco’s SPM buoy during the pilot-assisted mooring operation.
2. Whether the pilot supplied under Texaco’s terminal procedures was a “voluntary pilot” whose negligence is attributed to the vessel owner under respondeat superior.
3. Whether Texaco’s own conduct (including the lack of pilot-to-bridge radio communication) affected liability and, if so, how it should be handled under maritime fault-allocation rules.

## Decision

- The court held Afran liable for the allision with Texaco’s SPM buoy.
- The court treated the pilot as a voluntary pilot rather than a compulsory pilot and attributed the pilot’s fault to the vessel owner under ordinary respondeat superior principles.
- The court considered Texaco’s role in setting the operating procedures and providing the pilot (including the communication arrangements), but those circumstances did not fully excuse the vessel owner from liability; any Texaco fault was addressed through maritime apportionment rather than complete exoneration of Afran.
- Because the opinion addressed liability only, damages were left for later proceedings if needed.

## Legal Principles

- A shipowner is generally responsible in personam for the negligent acts of those who control the vessel with the owner’s consent, including a voluntary pilot, under respondeat superior.
- A pilot is “voluntary” when accepted as part of the vessel’s operations without a compulsory pilotage mandate; the shipowner remains legally accountable for the pilot’s errors.
- In an allision with a fixed structure, maritime law focuses on fault and causation, and liability can be allocated among parties whose acts or omissions contributed to the casualty.
- A facility operator’s negligent procedures (such as inadequate real-time communication arrangements during mooring) may reduce recovery through comparative fault, but do not automatically shift full responsibility away from the vessel owner when the vessel’s handling also contributed to the impact.

## Conclusion

The *AFRAN BREEZE* struck and damaged Texaco Trinidad’s offshore SPM buoy during a pilot-assisted attempt to connect and transfer crude oil. Although Texaco required and supplied the pilot and failed to provide reliable radio communication for him, the court concluded the pilot was a voluntary pilot whose negligence was imputable to Afran as the vessel owner, making Afran liable in personam, with any Texaco negligence handled through maritime fault allocation rather than total exoneration of the shipowner.


Texaco Trinidad, Inc. v. Afran Transport Co., 538 F. Supp. 1038 (1982)