It's not everyday you get a published opinion from a Federal Appellate Court that recounts intrigue and lost treasure from the Napoleonic wars at the turn of the 19th Century. It's also not everyday the prevailing litigant is the Kingdom of Spain.
Viewers of cable television may recall a series, "Treasure Hunters" showing the for-profit Odyssey Marine Exploration team searching for sunken treasure. If I recall, the series showed thousands of coins recovered from a wreck and held in an undisclosed location, pending litigation by the Spanish Government. Well now the other doubloon drops as it were...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit held this week that treasure-hunters Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., must return the res , or property recovered from the a wreck site near Gibraltar. The Opinion is attached here. The Court found that the ship was the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, and that the ship was a Spanish Naval vessel sunk by British Warships in 1804 as it sailed for Spain loaded with treasure.
The Court's opinion is not only interesting for its recitation of the historical context of the voyage and loss of the Mercedes (see page 22 and following), it is also an interesting legal ruling. In summary, the Court ruled that a salvor, or finder of treasure, cannot have a U.S. Court arrest the property of a foreign nation. The Court held that it had "constructive possession" of the shipwreck because part of the wreck had been deposited by Odyssey with the District Court. Ultimately, the Court ordered the return of nearly 600,000 coins and other artifacts to Spain, over which it had "constructive possession" though it had no jurisdiction over the property.
The statue construed was the Federal Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. 1602-1611
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