CROWLEY, TRAILER BRIDGE, PUERTO RICO PORTS AUTHORITY SETTLE DISPUTE

CROWLEY, TRAILER BRIDGE, PUERTO RICO PORTS AUTHORITY SETTLE DISPUTE    Crowley Liner Services Inc. and Trailer Bridge Inc. have settled their two-year dispute with the Puerto Rico Ports Authority regarding rates for port fees.
   Federal Maritime Commission administrative law judge Norman D. Kline agreed to a motion by the carriers to dismiss their complaint, which was filed in January 2000, with prejudice and without an award of costs or attorney's fees.
   The complaint accused the port authority of changing its method of measuring vehicles that pay dockage and other fees at the port of San Juan. The method resulted in tripling the charges against the two carriers' triple-deck roll-on/roll-off barges, so that the charges were double those paid by the carriers' competitors that called the port.
   After a series of delays, the parties were referred to the FMC's Dispute Resolution Specialist. Ronald D. Murphy, deputy director of the commission's Bureau of Consumer Complaints and Licensing, was able to assist the carriers and the port authority to reach a settlement agreement.
   The FMC agreed to the parties' request that the compromise agreement be kept confidential, but Kline said the agreement 'would allow the two carriers to pay the subject port charges in PRPA's schedules in a manner to the mutual satisfaction of the parties.'
   Kline noted that the case was a good example of favoring resolution over litigation. He noted the case raised several difficult issues, including whether the carriers were involved in foreign trades so that the FMC would have jurisdiction over the U.S./Puerto Rico services.