New York attorney, preservationist group won't face penalties for a lawsuit attempting to stop a Florida County from turning a once-mighty ocean liner into a reef.
The Ocean Liner SS United States was brought to Mobile from Philadelphia, arriving March 3, 2025. Modern American Recycling & Repair Services will clean the ship up and prepare it to be sunk off the Florida coast; Okaloosa County, Fla.
, bought the ship for use as an artificial reef.A New York group might have failed in a legal bid to stop a historic ocean liner from being turned into a reef, but it and its attorney won’t be fined or sanctioned for an effort that Florida attorneys decried as frivolous, baseless and “unmoored from any legal theory.” Despite their larger defeat, leadership of the New York Coalition to Save the SS United States portrayed the latest ruling as a ‘major victory’ for those who’d like to save the ship. They also framed it as an “embarrassment” to the Okaloosa County attorneys who were successful in their bid to have the coalition’s case dismissed. The kerfuffle is a sideshow. James S. Kaplan, director of the coalition and chair of its legal committee, said in a statement issued over the weekend that the group does not plan to revive its lawsuit. But it won’t be the last word. “We are continuing to challenge the reefing in social media and before the Army Corps of Engineers, and with the Department of the Interior,” Kaplan said. He also cited a recent resolution from New York City’s City Council as a significant development in the fight to save the historic ship.The SS United States, a passenger ship that once reigned as the fastest ocean liner in the world, was a queen of the seas until 1969, when her original operator withdrew her from service. A series of ownership changes followed and by the mid-‘90s she was permanently docked and at risk of being scrapped. Efforts to save the ship and possibly turn it into a museum failed, and in 2024 Okaloosa County, Fla., bought the hulk with the intention of sinking it as a reef for the benefit of Gulf anglers and divers. The ship was, a voyage that generated widespread public interest. It arrived at a MARRS facility south of downtown on the Mobile RiverThere, work began to strip away loose paint, clean up traces of fuel and otherwise prepare it for sinking. Through spring 2025, the ship The hulk of the SS United States, its tall stacks removed, is seen with the downtown Mobile skyline in the background on Oct. 13, 2025.Meanwhile, a legal effort played out in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The New York Coalition to Save the Steam Ship United States sued in March 2025 to block or delay the sale. Okaloosa County sought to have the complaint dismissed. After some back-and-forth, which included an amended complaint, the suit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be re-filed. A few days later, the coalition said it was withdrawing its complaint with prejudice, meaning it would not try again. Okaloosa County then moved for New York-based attorney James M. Maloney – not to be confused with– to be sanctioned. It also called for the plaintiffs to be made to pay the county’s “attorneys’ fees and costs, as well as any other relief this court deems just and proper.” In their arguments the two sides fired a number of lively broadsides at each other. Maloney said Okaloosa County had threatened to seek sanctions if the Coalition didn’t withdraw its suit with prejudice, then sought them anyway after it did. Okaloosa County’s attorneys argued at length that Maloney knew or should have known that “there exists no legal basis for Plaintiff’s claims against the County” and that his “persistent bad faith and dilatory tactics are wholly improper and a gross abuse of this Court’s finite resources.” In a ruling filed Jan. 22, Magistrate Judge Hope T. Cannon agreed with the county that relevant precedent “should have given the Coalition great pause in bringing this action.” But Cannon continued that “the Court does not think sanctions, beyond dismissal, are warranted in this case.” “This decision vindicates our view that the lawsuit brought by the Coalition to Save the SS United States was not frivolous, but rather a good faith effort to stop the destruction of one of America’s greatest historic maritime landmarks,” Kaplan said in the Coalition’s subsequent statement. “The Magistrate’s decision is a victory for more than 20,000 people who have signed petitions protesting the destruction of the ship and the millions of New Yorkers whose New York City Council recently passed a resolution unanimously calling on the federal government to save the ship and fund its return to New York City.” The New York City Council passed a resolution regarding the ship on Dec. 18. It called on “the United States Congress to pass, and the President to sign, legislation allocating funds for the restoration of the SS United States and for its relocation to the City of New York.” The Coalition has been asking for federal intervention since at least Feb. 10, 2025, when it sent a letter to President Donald Trump arguing that the ship “could become among the greatest economic and cultural sites in Brooklyn” and that saving it “is about honoring the legacy of American Greatness.” An Okaloosa County spokesman said Monday that the county and its partners “are currently planning to deploy the SS United States as the World’s Largest Artificial Reef in March of this year.” The exact timing “will rely heavily on good weather and coordination with multiple agencies.”Historic SS United States dismantling begins in Mobile: What happens nextLawrence Specker I've worked as a Mobile-based reporter for the Press-Register and AL.com for more than 25 years. During that time I've written extensively about arts, entertainment, food and culture. I've also covered metro...
@River-State SS United States @Yahoo Section:/News/Mobile
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