§412 — Title 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters | U.S. Code

Summary

If a captain, pilot, engineer, or someone acting in those jobs knowingly tows a scow, boat, or vessel loaded with material listed in section 407 to a place outside the limits the Secretary of the Army allows, or willfully damages U.S. works in section 408, or willfully blocks a channel as in section 409, they commit a violation. If convicted, they face the punishment in section 411 and their license can be suspended or revoked for the time the judge sets. Any boat, scow, raft, or other craft used to break sections 407, 408, 409, 414, or 415 must pay the money penalties in section 411 and must also pay for the damages it caused. The damage money goes to the appropriation for improving the harbor or waterway where the harm happened. The craft can be sued by a libel action in a U.S. district court.

Title 33, §412

Navigation and Navigable Waters — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Any and every master, pilot, and engineer, or person or persons acting in such capacity, respectively, on board of any boat or vessel who shall knowingly engage in towing any scow, boat, or vessel loaded with any material specified in section 407 of this title to any point or place of deposit or discharge in any harbor or navigable water, elsewhere than within the limits defined and permitted by the Secretary of the Army, or who shall willfully injure or destroy any work of the United States contemplated in section 408 of this title, or who shall willfully obstruct the channel of any waterway in the manner contemplated in section 409 of this title, shall be deemed guilty of a violation of this Act, and shall upon conviction be punished as provided in section 411 of this title, and shall also have his license revoked or suspended for a term to be fixed by the judge before whom tried and convicted. And any boat, vessel, scow, raft, or other craft used or employed in violating any of the provisions of section 407, 408, 409, 414, and 415 of this title shall be liable for the pecuniary penalties specified in section 411 of this title, and in addition thereto for the amount of the damages done by said boat, vessel, scow, raft, or other craft, which latter sum shall be placed to the credit of the appropriation for the improvement of the harbor or waterway in which the damage occurred, and said boat, vessel, scow, raft, or other craft may be proceeded against summarily by way of libel in any district court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This Act, referred to in text, is act Mar. 3, 1899, ch. 425, 30 Stat. 1148, popularly known as the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899, which enacted section 401, 403, 404, 406, 407, 408, 409, 411 to 416, 418, 502, 549, and 687 of this title, and amended section 686 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Tables. Codification Section is from part of section 16 of act Mar. 3, 1899, popularly known as the “Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899”. The balance of such section, relating to penalties for the wrongful deposit of refuse, is classified to section 411 of this title.

Amendments

1996—Pub. L. 104–303 substituted “407, 408, 409, 414, and 415 of this title” for “407, 408, and 409 of this title”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

Department of War designated Department of the Army and title of Secretary of War changed to Secretary of the Army by section 205(a) of act

July 26, 1947, ch. 343, title II, 61 Stat. 501. section 205(a) of act

July 26, 1947, was repealed by section 53 of act Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 641. section 1 of act Aug. 10, 1956, enacted “Title 10, Armed Forces” which in sections 3010 to 3013 continued Department of the Army under administrative supervision of Secretary of the Army.

Transfer of Functions

Functions, powers, and duties of Secretary of the Army and other offices and officers of Department of the Army under section 401 of this title to extent that they relate generally to location and clearances of bridges and causeways in navigable waters of United States transferred to and vested in Secretary of Transportation by Pub. L. 89–670, § 6(g)(6)(A), Oct. 15, 1966, 80 Stat. 941, which created Department of Transportation. Pub. L. 97–449 amended section 401 of this title to reflect transfer made by section 6(g)(6)(A) of Pub. L. 89–670, and repealed section 6(g)(6)(A).

§412 Liability of masters, pilots, etc., and of vessels engaged in violations