La Vida Marine Center, L.P. v. Zellers (D.V.I. 2006)

Citation: 47 V.I. 747 (D.V.I. 2006) · Court: District Court of the Virgin Islands, Division of St. Thomas and St. John (Civil No. 2005-10) · Decided: July 18, 2006 · Opinion: Gomez, Judge

Source note (2026-10-18):

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Case page. Legal information, not legal advice. Last verified: 2026-10-16. Source: Caselaw Access Project scan of Virgin Islands Reports (https://static.case.law/vi/47/cases/0747-01.json), retrieved 2026-10-16.

Facts

Thomas Zellers obtained a USD 1,888.50 Territorial Court judgment against Jack and Darla Holmes and, under a writ of execution, had their sailing vessel Lobo de Mar seized. He removed it from the water and placed it in dry storage at La Vida Marine Center at USD 495 a month, intending to hold it until paid. After learning in March 2002 that LPP Mortgage held a first-priority mortgage on the boat, he stopped paying storage. By 2005 La Vida was owed over USD 18,465 and sued in admiralty; Zellers sought contribution from LPP and its servicer.

Holding

Dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Storage of the vessel “is purely a method to secure payment of a debt that has nothing to do with transportation in navigable waters” and is “not sufficiently related to maritime activity to invoke federal admiralty jurisdiction”; the parties were not diverse and no federal question was presented. The third-party complaint fell with the main claim.

Reasoning

Dry-storage contracts can be maritime when storage substitutes for wet mooring or relates to a ship “in its use as a ship” (citing American East Development Corp. v. Everglades Marina, 608 F.2d 123 (5th Cir. 1979)), but indefinite storage of a vessel seized on execution while a debt dispute is resolved is not.

Practical impact

A judgment creditor who seizes a boat on a territorial writ of execution takes on storage costs that can quickly exceed the judgment, and a senior mortgage (here LPP’s first-priority mortgage) remains ahead of the creditor. Disputes over storage of a levied vessel belong in the territorial courts, not federal admiralty. Buyers of levied vessels should check recorded mortgages and accrued storage charges; see maritime-liens-and-preferred-ship-mortgages.

Good-law status

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Applies in →

us-virgin-islands, vessels, admiralty-arrest-and-marshals-sale