Appeals processes and legal considerations

Business

Appeals and the Government

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze the topic of federal property and private collectors. Specifically it will discuss the case of Doug Champlin, a World War II plane collector who found a Navy plane off the coast of Florida, retrieved it, and then the Navy claimed ownership and wanted the plane back. The case eventually went to the Supreme Court, which refused to rule on it, which upheld the ruling that only Congress can order the abandonment of federal property.

Lost, misplaced, and abandoned property all have differing definitions. If the property is lost, then there is no known location of the property, while misplaced property is somewhere, it is just not known where. Abandoned property, on the other hand, is known and recognized in a certain location, but no effort is made to recover it. This is the case with the Douglas TBD Devastator that lay off the coast of Miami for over 40 years, until it was salvaged by Champlin. The plane is historically important because it is the only known surviving aircraft of that type. The Navy wants the plane for its Museum in Pensacola, and yet, it knew where the plane was all this time, and made no effort to reclaim it.

The plane was not lost, because the crewmembers survived the crash and were rescued, so the location was set. The plane was not misplaced, because the Navy knew where it was since at least 1990, when a treasure hunter found it, videotaped it, and notified the Navy (Editors, 1999). Thus, the Navy was aware of the plane for at least eight years before it was salvaged, but made no effort to salvage it on their own. The plane would seem to fit the definition of abandoned because it was known it was there, that it had crashed, and it was the last known model. If the Navy was so anxious to have it, they could have recovered it at any time, yet they chose not to, which makes the aircraft abandoned.

Putting aside the fact that the plane is federal property, the plane is abandoned. The Navy chose not to recover it, and left it there for over 40 years, until someone else footed the bill for the recovery, and then the Navy jumped in. It would seem there should be some time limit on recovery, and if items are not recovered before that time limit, they are officially abandoned. It is quite interesting to note that all branches of the government are not as zealous about abandonment and recovery procedures. An aviation archaeologist notes, "Not all military services protect their old property as aggressively as the Navy does. If you're dead-set on recovering a B-29 stuck on a frozen lakebed in northern Greenland or a P-38 rotting away on the Aleutian Island of Attu, the Air Force couldn't care less" (Heck, 1998). Thus, the Navy and the Supreme Court are upholding laws that other branches ignore, which seems to give even more credence to the claims of the salvagers who want to retain ownership of the planes they recover.