Wyandotte Transportation Company v. United States/Concurrence Harlan

Mr. Justice HARLAN, concurring.

I concur in the Court's holding that under § 15 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, 33 U.S.C. § 409, the United States may recover the costs of removing a vessel negligently sunk in navigable waters from those responsible for the sinking. I further agree with the holding that the United States is entitled to the declaratory relief sought in the Cargill action. In affording this latter relief it is my understanding that the Court does not purport to decide whether the United States may also obtain an injunction compelling removal, but has left that question to be answered in light of a full development of the facts, and in accordance with normal standards of equity.

In reaching these conclusions, I have not been unmindful of the view stated by me in dictum in my dissenting opinion in United States v. Republic Steel Corp., 362 U.S. 482, 493, 80 S.Ct. 884, 891, 4 L.Ed.2d 903, to the effect that the courts are precluded from supplying relief not expressly found in the Rivers and Harbors Act. Insofar as that dictum might be taken to encompass the present case, where, contrary to my view in Republic Steel, I do believe that the relief afforded by this Court is fairly to be implied from the statute, candor would compel me to say that the dictum was ill-founded.

On these premises I join the opinion of the Court.