Columbus-America Discovery Group v. Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
974 F.2d 450 (4th Cir. 1992)
In 1857 the ship Central America sank carrying millions in gold; the insurance underwriters (defendant, including Atlantic Mutual) paid out claims to policyholders, making the underwriters the gold's new owners, but never retrieved it themselves. In 1988 the unaffiliated Columbus-America Discovery Group (plaintiff) located the wreck, obtained exclusive salvage rights from a federal district court, and began recovering the gold; when the underwriters came forward asserting ownership, the district court found they had abandoned the gold (based partly on their having destroyed original insurance documentation, a common industry practice) and awarded Columbus-America full ownership under the law of finds. The underwriters appealed.
Whether, when a party claims to own items salvaged from an ancient shipwreck, the court should apply the law of finds rather than the law of salvages.