## Facts

- Weyerhaeuser operated a lumber mill on Coos Bay, Oregon, and stored branded logs in the water near the mill.
- Some logs became lost and drifted unattended on Coos Bay; Weyerhaeuser maintained its own patrol and made substantial efforts to recover lost logs.
- Tidewater Salvage, a professional marine salvor in the Coos Bay area, sought compensation for recovering (1) branded logs floating in Coos Bay and (2) logs stranded on nearby beaches.
- Before the recoveries at issue, Weyerhaeuser notified Tidewater in writing that it did not want Tidewater’s salvage services.
- The district court found it generally difficult or unreasonably impractical to determine ownership of a floating log before recovery.
- The district court found the floating logs were in marine peril because, absent recovery when they were recovered, there was some likelihood each log might be lost and the logs posed a danger to navigation.
- The district court awarded salvage for floating logs recovered in navigable waters and denied salvage for logs found stranded on beaches.
- Both parties appealed: Weyerhaeuser challenged the salvage award for floating logs; Tidewater challenged the denial for beached logs.

## Issues

1. Whether recovery of unattended branded logs drifting in navigable waters supports a salvage award when the owner previously issued a blanket refusal of the salvor’s services and the logs were in marine peril.
2. Whether recovery of logs stranded on beaches supports a maritime salvage award.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the judgment in full.
- It upheld the salvage award for floating logs recovered in Coos Bay, concluding the finding of marine peril was not clearly erroneous and that the owner’s blanket refusal did not bar salvage recovery on these facts.
- It upheld denial of salvage for logs stranded on beaches, treating them as outside the proper scope of maritime salvage.

## Legal Principles

- A salvage award requires marine peril, satisfied when there is a reasonable apprehension that, without salvage, the property will be lost.
- Unattended logs floating in navigable waters may be subject to the law of salvage.
- An owner has a recognized right to refuse salvage assistance if the refusal is prudent; salvage cannot be imposed as forced assistance.
- Salvage doctrine rests in part on public policy encouraging voluntary aid to property in distress at sea; in appropriate cases, admiralty law supplies consent to salvage even where express consent is absent.
- A general or blanket refusal does not necessarily defeat salvage where the owner’s protective measures do not practically eliminate the peril and the conditions otherwise support salvage.
- Property stranded on beaches, outside navigable waters and without a qualifying maritime peril, is not ordinarily a proper subject of maritime salvage.

## Conclusion

The court held that Tidewater could recover a salvage award for unattended Weyerhaeuser logs drifting in navigable waters in marine peril despite a prior blanket refusal of services, but could not recover salvage for logs already stranded on beaches.


Tidewater Salvage, Inc. v. Weyerhaeuser Co., 633 F.2d 1304 (9th Cir. 1980)