ORDER

WILLIAM H. STEELE, Chief Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on a trio of Rule 56 motions styled Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (doc. 46), Seaport Marine Inc.'s Motion for Summary Judgment (doc. 48), and Odyssea Marine Inc.'s Motion for Summary Judgment (doc. 68). These cross-motions, all of which turn on the same narrow question, have been extensively briefed and are now ripe for disposition.

I. Nature of the Case.

Plaintiff, Wilbur Smith, initiated this putative class action against defendants, Seaport Marine, Inc. and Odyssea Marine, Inc., predicating subject matter jurisdiction on the general maritime law pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1333(1). The case arises from Smith's contractual relationship with Seaport Marine, pursuant to which the latter provided him job placement services in exchange for Smith agreeing to remit a recruitment fee to Seaport Marine in a series of installment payments via an assignment of wages. Seaport Marine successfully found work for Smith with Odyssea Marine, which then honored Smith's assignment of wages. Through that assignment, Seaport Marine received the entire agreed-upon fee of $3,640, and Smith received the balance of his earned wages for each subject paycheck. Smith now brings what he terms a "Seaman's Claim for Wages" under the general maritime law against Seaport Marine and Odyssea Marine. Plaintiff contends that the wage assignment was "unauthorized and unlawful," and demands "the balance of [his] wages allotted and forwarded to and retained by Seaport Marine." (Doc. 1, ¶ 18.)1

All three parties now move for summary judgment as to the Seaman's Claim for Wages. Although the litigants have collectively devoted more than 120 pages of briefing to the dueling Rule 56 motions, the issue presented is actually quite narrow, to-wit: On a set of undisputed material facts, does general maritime law entitle Smith to recover agreed placement fees paid out by his employer pursuant to a written wage assignment that contains the word "irrevocable"?

II. Relevant Facts.2

Seaport Marine is a Mobile, Alabama-based company that provides employment placement services for seamen. (Bender Aff. (doc. 49-1), at 1.) Being a for-profit business, Seaport Marine naturally does not provide these services gratis, but charges its clients a placement fee. (Id. at 2, 4.) In late 2010, Wilbur Smith sought out Seaport Marine's help in securing a job. (Id. at 2.) With Seaport Marine's assistance, Smith was placed at Odyssea Marine in June 2011. (Id.) Smith was satisfied with the job assignment that Seaport Marine procured for him. (Smith Dep. (doc. 66, Exh. A), at 30.)

In exchange for these placement services, Smith executed a series of three agreements in Seaport Marine's favor in October 2010. First, Smith signed a one-page form "Employment Placement Contract" (the "Placement Contract"), in which he agreed that if he accepted a job offer referred by Seaport Marine, he would pay Seaport Marine a fee totaling "fourteen days pay based on your starting daily gross rate at time of acceptance." (Smith Decl. (doc. 47-1), Exh. 1.) The Placement Contract specified that "[p]ayments will be made in installments until the fee is paid in its entirety," with payments spread across six equal installments of wages paid on a biweekly basis. (Id.) In this agreement, Smith expressly "acknowledge[d] that payroll checks from employer shall be sent to SEAPORT MARINE, INC. until all advancements and fee are paid in full." (Id. (emphasis omitted).) Second, Smith executed a one-page "Special Power of Attorney" (the "POA") in which he authorized Seaport Marine "[t]o endorse and deposit into the account of SEAPORT MARINE, INC. at the Wachovia Bank[,] a banking institution, the proceeds of my check from my employer." (Smith Decl., Exh. 2.) Third, Smith signed a one-page "Paycheck Mailing Agreement" (the "PMA") authorizing his employer to mail his payroll checks directly to Seaport Marine until the total agreed fee had been collected. (Smith Decl., Exh. 3.) Of particular note for this litigation, the PMA specified, "This agreement is irrevocable until installment payments totaling $__________ have been paid to said employment service" (id. (emphasis added)), after which time the employer was to mail payroll checks directly to Smith's home address in Gretna, Louisiana. Smith read these documents before submitting them to Seaport Marine. (Smith Dep., at 29.)3

Odyssea Marine is a marine transportation and vessel operating company in the offshore oil and gas industry. (Fontenot Aff. (doc. 67, Exh. A), ¶ 2.) Smith was employed by Odyssea Marine as a Qualified Member of the Engine Department from June 20, 2011 through March 1, 2012. (Id., ¶ 3.) Odyssea Marine neither drafted nor presented to Smith the Placement Contract, POA, or PMA that he executed in Seaport Marine's favor. (Id., ¶ 5.) Odyssea Marine had no direct involvement in Smith's execution of those documents or his contractual relationship with Seaport Marine. (Id.) Odyssea Marine did not provide legal advice to Smith regarding the agreements he executed with Seaport Marine, nor did it endeavor to interfere with those agreements. (O'Bryan Decl. (doc. 47-7), at Exh. 1.) Instead, Odyssea Marine accommodated the stated preferences of its employee (Smith) with respect to assignment of his wages to the placement company that had found him a job.

For a time, Odyssea Marine sent Smith's paychecks to Seaport Marine. (Smith Dep., at 29.) This practice continued until Smith had paid Seaport Marine the agreed fee of two weeks' pay, after which Odyssea Marine no longer forwarded Smith's checks to Seaport Marine. (Id.) Through this process, Odyssea Marine simply followed the clear instructions in the PMA that Smith had executed. (Fontenot Aff., ¶¶ 6-7.) At no time did Smith voice any complaints to Seaport Marine about the agreed-upon manner in which it collected the agreed-upon fee. (Smith Dep., at 29-30.) Nor did he ever object to Odyssea Marine forwarding his paycheck to Seaport Marine. (Fontenot Aff., ¶ 6.) At no time did Smith request or demand that Odyssea Marine stop sending his paychecks to Seaport Marine, or that Seaport Marine stop receiving his checks. (Smith Dep., at 30-31.) Odyssea Marine did not retain any funds owed to Smith, but paid out all compensation he earned in accordance with his instructions. (Fontenot Aff., ¶ 7.)4

Record materials confirm that the mechanics of Seaport Marine's recoupment of its placement fee were as follows: For six consecutive biweekly pay periods ranging from July 2011 through September 2011, Odyssea Marine sent Smith's entire check to Seaport Marine. That defendant deposited Smith's check in its bank account, then sent Smith a separate check in the amount of the difference between his net pay from Odyssea Marine and the installment payment owed to Seaport Marine. (Smith Decl., Exhs. 4 & 5.) For example, on August 10, 2013, Odyssea Marine sent Smith's paycheck for $2,430.10 to Seaport Marine. The next day, Seaport Marine issued a check to Smith in the amount of $1,823.44, after deducting the remaining $606.66 as an installment payment for employment placement services. (Id.)

Smith now asserts a general maritime claim for seaman's wages against both Seaport Marine and Odyssea Marine. He does not attack the sufficiency, quality or value of Seaport Marine's placement services. He does not suggest that the charged placement fee was unearned by Seaport Marine, was never voluntarily agreed to by him, was somehow different than the parties' agreement, or was excessive, unreasonable, unfair or unconscionable. He does not argue that Odyssea Marine underpaid him or deviated from the payment instructions in the PMA that he signed. Rather, the legal theory undergirding Smith's seaman's claim for wages is that the PMA was unlawful and illegal pursuant to 46 U.S.C. § 11109(b), and that such invalidity, without more, entitles Smith to recover "the balance of [his] wages allotted and forwarded to and retained by Seaport Marine as unauthorized and unlawful allotments." (Doc. 1, ¶ 18.) Simply put, Smith demands that defendants repay him the $3,640 placement fee because he contends that the assignment of wages he signed for Seaport Marine's benefit, the manner in which Seaport Marine collected that fee, and Odyssea Marine's unquestioning acquiescence in that agreed-upon methodology were improper and illegal. Even though the placement fee was rightfully earned and payable to Seaport Marine for the services it provided him, plaintiff's contention is that Seaport Marine forfeited it by utilizing an unlawful method of collection.5

III. Summary Judgment Standard.

Summary judgment should be granted only "if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Rule 56(a), Fed.R.Civ.P. The party seeking summary judgment bears "the initial burden to show the district court, by reference to materials on file, that there are no genuine issues of material fact that should be decided at trial." Clark v. Coats & Clark, Inc., 929 F.2d 604, 608 (11th Cir.1991). Once the moving party has satisfied its responsibility, the burden shifts to the non-movant to show the existence of a genuine issue of material fact. Id. "If the nonmoving party fails to make `a sufficient showing on an essential element of her case with respect to which she has the burden of proof,' the moving party is entitled to summary judgment." Id. (quoting Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986)) (footnote omitted). "In reviewing whether the nonmoving party has met its burden, the court must stop short of weighing the evidence and making credibility determinations of the truth of the matter. Instead, the evidence of the non-movant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in his favor." Tipton v. Bergrohr GMBH-Siegen, 965 F.2d 994, 999 (11th Cir.1992) (internal citations and quotations omitted). "Summary judgment is justified only for those cases devoid of any need for factual determinations." Offshore Aviation v. Transcon Lines, Inc., 831 F.2d 1013, 1016 (11th Cir.1987) (citation omitted).

Both sides have moved for summary judgment on plaintiff's general maritime claim for seaman's wages. The law is clear that "[t]he applicable Rule 56 standard is not affected by the filing of cross-motions for summary judgment." Page v. Winn-Dixie Montgomery, Inc., 702 F.Supp.2d 1334, 1345 (S.D.Ala.2010) (citations omitted); see also Murray v. Holiday Isle, LLC, 620 F.Supp.2d 1302, 1307 (S.D.Ala.2009) (same). The Eleventh Circuit has explained that "[c]ross-motions for summary judgment will not, in themselves, warrant the court in granting summary judgment unless one of the parties is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on facts that are not genuinely disputed." United States v. Oakley, 744 F.2d 1553, 1555 (11th Cir.1984) (citation omitted); see also Wermager v. Cormorant Tp. Bd., 716 F.2d 1211, 1214 (8th Cir.1983) ("the filing of cross motions for summary judgment does not necessarily indicate that there is no dispute as to a material fact, or have the effect of submitting the cause to a plenary determination on the merits"). Nonetheless, "cross-motions may be probative of the absence of a factual dispute where they reflect general agreement by the parties as to the dispositive legal theories and material facts." Page, 702 F.Supp.2d at 1345 (citations omitted); see also Murray, 620 F.Supp.2d at 1307. Such is the case here.6

IV. Analysis.

A. The Text and Meaning of 46 U.S.C. § 11109(b).

As this Court has previously recognized and as all parties now acknowledge, Smith's cause of action for wages is not a statutory claim, but is instead predicated on general maritime law. See Smith v. Seaport Marine, Inc., 919 F.Supp.2d 1267, 1275 (S.D.Ala.2013) ("Smith has not asserted a statutory claim against defendants under § 11109(b). Rather, he has brought a general maritime law claim for wages.") (footnote omitted). That said, it is also true that plaintiff relies on 46 U.S.C. § 11109(b) as the legal foundation of his claim to relief under general maritime law. In that regard, plaintiff stakes himself to the position that "[t]his general maritime law claim for wages is predicated on Seaport's violation of Section 11109(b) in offering its recruitment services vis-à-vis an `irrevocable' assignment that allowed it to deduct Plaintiff's wages into its coffers." (Doc. 75, at 6.) Given the centrality of § 11109(b) to Smith's claim, the appropriate starting point for the summary judgment analysis is to examine the statute and its text, history and interpretation.

Subsection (b) limits the enforceability of seaman's assignments of wages, as follows: "An assignment or sale of wages or salvage made before the payment of wages does not bind the party making it, except allotments authorized by section 10315 of this title." 46 U.S.C. § 11109(b).7 The "allotments authorized by section 10315" language has no bearing on this dispute, inasmuch as that exception concerns assignments in which a seaman allots his wages "to the seaman's grandparents, parents, spouse, sister, brother, or children;" "to an agency designated by the Secretary of the Treasury ... to purchase bonds for the seaman;" and "for deposits to be made in an account for savings or investment opened by the seaman and maintained in the seaman's name at a savings bank or a savings institution." 46 U.S.C. § 10315(a)(1-3). The facts of this case do not fit any of those binding allotment scenarios; therefore, Smith's pre-payment assignment of wages to Seaport Marine was not binding on him, under the plain language of § 11109(b).

Again, the gist of this lawsuit is that Smith is attempting to parlay § 11109(b) into a claim for seaman's wages against Seaport Marine and Odyssea Marine. This is a general maritime claim, as no statutory claim is available to Smith. After all, § 11109(b) does not provide a private right of action or purport to create any remedy (in damages or otherwise) for a seaman who has executed a non-binding assignment of wages. The critical questions animating all parties' Rule 56 motions are whether (i) defendants' conduct constitutes a violation of this code section, and (ii) if so, whether plaintiff's requested damages remedy is cognizable under the general maritime law.

As to the first question, looking to case authorities, learned treatises, or other interpretive sources for direct insights into the meaning and application of § 11109(b) is an exercise in futility. The slate is largely blank. This statute was enacted in 1983 as a revision and recodification of a predecessor statute found at 46 U.S.C. § 601. Despite the fact that § 11109(b) is 30 years old, prior to this case (and plaintiff's counsel's filing of companion litigation in this District Court styled Jurich v. Compass Marine, Inc., Civil Action No. 12-0176-WS-B), only one federal decision in a widely-used online legal database had ever cited that section, and that unpublished opinion lacks persuasive insights.8 Thus, Smith's claim against Seaport Marine and Odyssea Marine turns on a decades-old statute that, for all intents and purposes, has never been litigated, much less been held to give rise to a general maritime claim for seaman's wages in the event of a violation. Expanding the search beyond case authorities to encompass treatises, law reviews, commentators and so on likewise yields precious little illumination.

The parties' extensive summary judgment briefs reflect that their own research into § 11109(b) has disclosed a dearth of on-point authority.9 Nonetheless, the parties' submissions do reflect that more than a century ago, the Supreme Court explained that a predecessor statute of § 11109 was designed to protect a seaman's admiralty right to recover unpaid wages via a maritime lien attaching in an in rem action against the vessel itself, and to avoid a circumstance in which the seaman would "be turned ashore with nothing in his pocket" because of garnishment, attachment or arrest of wages. Wilder v. Inter-Island Steam Nav. Co., 211 U.S. 239, 248, 29 S.Ct. 58, 53 L.Ed. 164 (1908). The Wilder Court reasoned that typically, "the sailor's []only means of subsistence on shore are his wages earned at sea. If these may be stopped by an attachment suit the instant his ship is moored to the wharf, a new hardship is added to a vocation already subject to its full share of the ills of life." Id. at 249, 29 S.Ct. 58 (citation omitted). Wilder thus provides some limited insight as to the policy objectives that § 11109's predecessor was designed to advance.

B. The Role of the Judiciary in Protecting Seamen.

With no on-point authorities, plaintiff seeks to derive a general maritime claim for payment of wages from what he maintains is defendants' violation of 46 U.S.C. § 11109(b). The doctrinal mechanism through which plaintiff would perform this bit of legal alchemy is the weathered "wards of admiralty" tenet of maritime jurisprudence.

"The character of maritime law as a mixture of statutes and judicial standards, an amalgam of traditional common-law rules, modifications of those rules, and newly created rules, ... accounts for the large part we have taken in working out the governing maritime tort principles." Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, 554 U.S. 471, 508 n. 21, 128 S.Ct. 2605, 171 L.Ed.2d 570 (2008) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). In performing this task of sculpting maritime law remedies and protections from a hodgepodge of statutes, rules, and common-law principles, federal courts historically emphasized that "seamen have always been regarded as wards of the admiralty, and their rights, wrongs, and injuries a special subject of the admiralty jurisdiction." Lindo v. NCL (Bahamas), Ltd., 652 F.3d 1257, 1294 (11th Cir. 2011) (citation omitted).10 The traditional policy justification for affording seamen such special solicitude is as follows: "A seaman isolated on a ship on the high seas is often vulnerable to the exploitation of his employer. Moreover, there exists a great inequality in bargaining position between large shipowners and unsophisticated seamen. Shipowners generally control the availability and terms of employment." Rogers v. Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, 547 F.3d 1148, 1152 (9th Cir.2008) (citation omitted).

Although the "wards of admiralty" notion has deep roots that may be traced back nearly 200 years, in recent years federal courts have increasingly expressed reservations about the continued vitality of that doctrine, or at least its breadth. In certain circumstances, federal courts have declined to rely on it to fill in gaps left by Congress and existing common-law rules. One commentator has observed that "[t]he wardship doctrine ... has lost some of its luster and thereby, seamen have lost some support in the courts." 2 Robert Force & Martin J. Norris, The Law of Seamen § 26:4 (5th ed.). Most notably, the Supreme Court cast a shadow on the doctrine via the following reasoning:

Miles v. Apex Marine Corp., 498 U.S. 19, 27, 111 S.Ct. 317, 112 L.Ed.2d 275 (1990); see also Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404, 420, 129 S.Ct. 2561, 174 L.Ed.2d 382 (2009) ("The reasoning of Miles remains sound.").11

That said, rumors of the wardship doctrine's demise appear exaggerated. Even in the wake of Miles, the Eleventh Circuit has continued to view seaman as wards of admiralty and has protected them accordingly. See Lindo, 652 F.3d at 1294 (acknowledging seamen's status "as a favored class" and explaining that "seamen like Lindo have traditionally been afforded special legal remedies"). Far from the absolutist, polar-opposite positions taken by the parties in their summary judgment briefs, the actual state of the law with respect to "wards of admiralty" is that the doctrine remains in play, but that the liberality of its use to fashion new general maritime law remedies supplementing those fixed by Congress is a subject of ongoing debate at the highest echelons of the American judiciary.12

C. Whether Defendants Violated § 11109(b) and, if so, Whether a General Maritime Law Remedy Exists.

1. The Record Does Not Support a Conclusion that Defendants Violated § 11109(b).

Plaintiff's briefs advance the theory that a violation of § 11109(b) is cognizable as a heretofore-unrecognized general maritime law claim for seaman's wages under the "wards of admiralty" doctrine. By contrast, defendants' briefs insist that the Miles reasoning confines Smith's remedies to the text of § 11109 (which provides only that a seaman's wage assignments are not binding) and does not allow judicial creation of a supplemental remedy for violation of the statute.13 Thus, both sides invite the Court to issue grand pronouncements about whether violations of § 11109(b) are or are not actionable under general maritime law.

The Court need not decide whether a general maritime law wage-recovery remedy ever lies for violations of § 11109(b), notwithstanding the weakened status of the wardship doctrine and Congress's apparently deliberate choice not to create any such remedy. The reason is that the summary judgment record, viewed in the light most favorable to Smith, does not establish a violation of § 11109(b). Recall that the statutory text reads, in relevant part, that "[a]n assignment or sale of wages ... made before the payment of wages does not bind the party making it." 46 U.S.C. § 11109(b). That's all it says. Section 11109(b) does not specify that such assignments of wages are unlawful, that any contract purporting to contain such an assignment is void, that a maritime employment agency's contract containing such an assignment is illegal, that an employer receiving such an agreement is in violation of the statute unless it provides legal advice to the seaman and/or dishonors the agreement, or the like. See Smith, 919 F.Supp.2d at 1279 n. 14 ("Section 11109(b) provides merely that an assignment such as that contained in the Paycheck Mailing Agreement `does not bind the party making it.' The statute does not declare such an assignment (or any allotment flowing from such an assignment) to be `unauthorized and unlawful.'").14

In short, nothing in § 11109(b) prohibited Seaport Marine from asking Smith to assign a portion of his wages to it until such time as the agreed-upon placement fee had been paid in full. Nothing in § 11109(b) barred Odyssea Marine from honoring the wishes of Seaport Marine and Smith (as embodied in the PMA furnished to it, and in the absence of any objection, inquiry or complaint to the contrary by Smith) by assigning Smith's paychecks to Seaport Marine for a designated period of time. And nothing in § 11109(b) required Odyssea Marine proactively and unilaterally to counsel Smith as to his legal options vis a vis the PMA and § 11109(b) before assigning each of his first six paychecks to Seaport Marine. Simply put, none of the conduct that plaintiff ascribes to defendants would amount to a violation of § 11109(b).

Again, plaintiff's unequivocal position is that "[]his general maritime law claim for wages is predicated on Seaport's violation of Section 11109(b)" (doc. 75, at 6) and that Odyssea Marine is liable because it "took advantage of Seaport's violation of Section 11109(b)" (doc. 74, at 5.) Without a violation of § 11109(b), plaintiff's general maritime claim for seaman's wages washes away; therefore, the Court will not engage in the hypothetical exercise of offering advisory opinions as to whether general maritime law would recognize such a claim via the "wards of admiralty" doctrine if plaintiff had indeed established a violation of § 11109(b).

2. Plaintiff Cannot Invalidate his Contractual Relationship with Seaport Marine because of the Word "Irrevocable."

In an effort to establish a § 11109(b) violation, plaintiff focuses on a single word in the PMA, to-wit: "irrevocable." Specifically, the Paycheck Mailing Agreement that Smith signed includes a sentence reading, "This agreement is irrevocable until installment payments totaling $_________ have been paid to" Seaport Marine. (Doc. 47, Exh. 3.) In plaintiff's view, inclusion of the single word "irrevocable" rendered the agreement void, unlawful, unenforceable, and violative of § 11109(b).15

Without a doubt, the term "irrevocable" is inconsistent with the text of § 11109(b), which provides that an assignment like the PMA "does not bind the party making it." So the PMA's statement that it was "irrevocable" until the placement fee had been collected is incorrect as a matter of law, because under § 11109(b) the PMA did not bind Smith. That discrepancy might help Smith sustain a general maritime law cause of action if there were a shred of evidence in the record that (i) Seaport Marine enforced the "irrevocable" contract term against Smith, (ii) Smith ever sought to revoke the PMA, (iii) Smith ever inquired of anyone about whether the PMA was binding or revocable (i.e., that he was misled by defendants), (iv) Smith relied on the word "irrevocable" in the PMA (i.e., that he was deterred by its presence from casting aside the PMA and canceling the wage assignment arrangement), or (v) Smith would have done something differently if the word "irrevocable" had been omitted from the PMA. The trouble is, no such evidence exists. There is no indication that the term "irrevocable" — on which plaintiff literally rests his entire case — factored into the course of dealings between these parties in any way, shape or form. On this record, it made no practical difference to Smith whether the PMA used the word "irrevocable" or not; indeed, there is no evidence that he even knew it was there. What plaintiff's claim amounts to, then, is an attempt to gin up a general maritime law claim for seaman's wages from a solitary word in the PMA that was, for all intents and purposes, surplusage because it was functionally irrelevant to Smith's dealings with Seaport Marine and Odyssea Marine.16

The problems with plaintiff's theory of recovery run deeper. From a technical inconsistency between the PMA and the provisions of § 11109(b), plaintiff seeks to bootstrap a claim that would wipe out his entire contractual arrangement with Seaport Marine, relieving him of his contractual burdens after he had fully received and enjoyed the corresponding benefits. In other words, plaintiff's claim is that the word "irrevocable" in the PMA not only invalidated his consent to the assignment of his Odyssea Marine paychecks to Seaport Marine, but also irretrievably tainted the underlying Placement Contract, which was the source of Smith's obligation to pay a placement fee to Seaport Marine. To achieve such a result, plaintiff exhorts the Court to view the Placement Contract, POA and PMA documents as a single indivisible agreement, and to find that a technical error in one necessarily brings the whole crashing down. Through this mechanism, Smith would have the Court rule that Seaport Marine cannot retain the agreed-upon placement fee it earned in providing satisfactory placement services to Smith, but must instead disgorge the entire $3,640 amount to plaintiff to atone for its transgression of using the term "irrevocable" (which no one apparently noticed, questioned, relied upon or enforced) in the PMA.

Plaintiff's application of contract law in this manner is problematic, at best. With a sleight of hand and no citations to authorities or record evidence of the parties' intent, he would turn three distinct (albeit related) agreements into a unitary, "co-dependent" contract, in which any flaw in the PMA is fatal to the Placement Contract. With no factual support, he plucks a single, out-of-context sentence from a 70-year old Supreme Court case about a shipbuilding contract and proclaims that "[t]here would have been no bargain whatever" between Smith and Seaport Marine but for the word "irrevocable" in the PMA. (Doc. 47, at 12.)17 The Court cannot make such a vast, unsupported leap. The authorities on which Smith relies for the proposition that the term "irrevocable" in the PMA "creates a conclusive presumption of an intent to deceive" are obviously distinguishable and unhelpful. See, e.g., Gueho v. Diamond M. Drilling Co., 524 F.2d 986, 987 (5th Cir.1975) (setting aside agreement where "there was ample evidence to demonstrate that the plaintiff was led to believe that he would maintain his employment," but employer terminated seaman's employment on the evening of the day of the agreement).18 And the treatise he cites for the proposition that any contract involving a seaman "will unhesitantly be set aside by an admiralty court if there is evidence that the seaman was not actually informed of his rights" plainly does not apply to Smith's circumstances. (Doc. 65, at 2.)19

Notwithstanding these and other defects in plaintiff's application of contract law, the Court resists the temptation to transform this Order into a point-by-point contract law discourse on each analytical error in plaintiff's theory that there was only one agreement, that the agreement was non-severable, and that the word "irrevocable" was an unlawful, fraudulent, deceptive act, and that "irrevocable" magically erases the entire agreement and frees Smith from any obligation to compensate Seaport Marine for the placement services he received. The reason the Court need not delve into such minutiae is that plaintiff has postured this case to be about general maritime law, not contract law. And general maritime law has a crucial feature that prevents Smith from recovering, even if he were correct that defendants' conduct violated § 11109(b) and even if he were correct that the "wards of admiralty" doctrine would fashion a brand-new claim in general maritime law for violations of § 11109(b) where Congress did not. That feature is equity.

Admiralty jurisdiction and maritime law are firmly grounded in principles of equity. See Allied Maritime, Inc. v. Descatrade SA, 620 F.3d 70, 76 (2nd Cir. 2010) ("As a court sitting in admiralty, we may use equitable principles where appropriate to avoid injustice.") (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); C.N.R. Atkin v. Smith, 137 F.3d 1169, 1171 (9th Cir.1998) ("equity is part of the law of admiralty"); Pizani v. M/V Cotton Blossom, 669 F.2d 1084, 1089 (5th Cir.1982) ("A court of admiralty is, as to all matters falling within its jurisdiction, a court of equity.") (citation omitted); Texas Gulf Sulphur Co. v. Blue Stack Towing Co., 313 F.2d 359, 362 (5th Cir.1963) ("In assaying the merits, we reaffirm the view many times expressed that the Admiralty is administered with equitable liberality and a simultaneous freedom from restraints or frustrations occasioned by technicalities or formal imperfections."); Mascuilli v. United States, 411 F.2d 867, 873 (3rd Cir.1969) (referencing "the equitable origins of maritime law"); Walck v. Discavage, 741 F.Supp. 88, 90 (E.D.Pa.1990) (recognizing "the fact that maritime law includes traditional common-law rules and modifications thereof, including discretionary principles of equity"); Drew Ameroid Int'l v. M/V Green Star, 681 F.Supp. 1056, 1061 (S.D.N.Y.1988) ("The maritime law prides itself upon equitable traditions and antecedents."); Complaint of Valley Towing Service, 629 F.Supp. 139, 147 (E.D.Mo. 1985) ("Admiralty is essentially the law of equity and courts are privileged to exercise flexibility and award what is fair. The hands of the court are not tied by the rigidity of common law."); The Denali, 13 F.Supp. 686, 687 (D.Wash.1936) ("Admiralty issues are submitted on equitable principles in harmony with rules of justice and expressed rules of procedure, and in consonance with principles of maritime law which pervades the practice of admiralty in this country," such that "the supreme purpose of doing justice is paramount to technical forms"). In that regard, the Supreme Court has emphasized the judiciary's role in "formulating flexible and fair remedies in the law maritime." Exxon Shipping, 554 U.S. at 508 n. 21, 128 S.Ct. 2605 (citations omitted).

The equities do not favor this plaintiff's opportunistic claim for seaman's wages. Smith does not purport to have been misled, tricked or forced to assign his wages to Seaport Marine. Indeed, he does not purport to have been wronged at all. Instead, he seizes on the happenstance of inclusion of the word "irrevocable" in the PMA (a term that was never enforced against him and that he does not purport even to have realized was there) to demand reimbursement of a placement fee that he lawfully agreed to pay Seaport Marine for placement services that Seaport Marine successfully provided, whose benefits he enjoyed in the form of a substantial job assignment with Odyssea Marine. Smith expresses no dissatisfaction with these placement services. The proof of his contentment is in the pudding, as he approached Seaport Marine some time later as a repeat customer after his Odyssea Marine employment concluded.

The point is that the outcome Smith seeks to derive from the proposed general maritime law remedy he invokes would be contrary to principles of equity. Smith would receive a windfall if this Court were effectively to tear up his Placement Contract after Seaport Marine had fully performed thereunder, and after Smith had received the full benefits of same, all because the PMA contained the word "irrevocable." Again, there is zero record evidence that Smith noticed or cared about the "irrevocable" terminology, or that he ever attempted to revoke the wage assignment or would have attempted to revoke the assignment had he known it to be nonbinding.20 Nor is there evidence that an overreaching ship owner or third party manipulated, misled or otherwise took advantage of an isolated seaman. To the contrary, this is a case in which plaintiff seizes on a single-word misstep in the PMA to shrug off contractual burdens that he willingly, voluntarily assumed, after he received and enjoyed the corresponding contractual benefits. Why should this Court create from whole cloth a heretofore never-recognized general maritime law remedy under which Smith can invalidate the Placement Contract because of a stray word in the PMA that, by all record evidence, affected neither his understanding nor the parties' course of dealing? That would not be an equitable outcome, much less an appropriate exercise of the judiciary's responsibility to formulate "flexible and fair remedies" under maritime law.21

For these reasons, the Court declines plaintiff's request that it design an equitable general maritime remedy in Smith's favor. The PMA promulgated by Seaport Marine and signed by Smith did not violate 46 U.S.C. § 11109(b). To be sure, it contained a single word ("irrevocable") that was inconsistent with § 11109(b). But the record is devoid of evidence that Seaport Marine ever enforced that aspect of the PMA, that Smith ever challenged the revocability of the PMA, that Smith ever wanted to revoke the PMA, or that he was ever cognizant that the PMA included the "irrevocable" proviso. Moreover, any complained-of defect in the PMA would be limited to the assignment of wages provision, and would not invalidate Smith's underlying obligation to pay Seaport Marine the promised $3,640 in placement fees pursuant to the binding, valid Placement Contract. Under these circumstances, regardless of one's views on the 21st-century vitality of the "wards of admiralty" doctrine, the Court finds that it would be inequitable and inappropriate to create a brand-new judicial remedy that would grant Smith an unfair benefit at Seaport Marine's expense because of a technicality that made no difference in Smith's dealings with Seaport Marine and Odyssea Marine. Plaintiff having made no showing that he has been wronged or damaged, the Court will not wield its equitable authority under general maritime law to forge a never-before-recognized remedy granting him a windfall that would be fundamentally unfair and inequitable to defendants.

3. Alternatively, Odyssea Owed No Duty to Serve as Smith's Legal Advisor.

The foregoing discussion negates not only Smith's claim for seaman's wages against Seaport Marine, but also his corresponding claim against Odyssea Marine. If § 11109(b) was not violated, then plaintiff's general maritime claim predicated on violation of that section fails as to both defendants, not just Seaport Marine. Moreover, Smith's failure to make any inquiry or effort to revoke the PMA, and the dearth of evidence that he was misled or dissuaded from action by the inaccurate term "irrevocable" in that document, precludes him from opportunistically asserting now that the PMA should be invalidated and the agreed-upon placement fee reimbursed by Seaport Marine or Odyssea Marine.22

Notwithstanding the applicability of this rationale to both defendants, the Court writes separately to Smith's seaman's wage claim against Odyssea Marine to clarify one point. Plaintiff says that Odyssea Marine is liable under general maritime law because it should have either (i) "ignored" the PMA and simply distributed paychecks directly to Smith, in derogation of his contrary written directive; or (ii) "at a minimum, at the time of each and very [sic] payment of his wages, advis[ed] him that the PMA was legally non-binding albeit termed `irrevocable', and obtain[ed] his acquiescence to forward his wages to Seaport." (Doc. 77, at 2; see also doc. 47, at 19, doc. 74, at 3.) Plaintiff does not suggest that the law required Odyssea to "ignore" his own written instructions; rather, plaintiff seeks to hold Odyssea Marine liable for not unilaterally furnishing him with legal advice about the enforceability of the PMA prior to each paycheck being forwarded to Seaport Marine. The law imposes no such burden on an employer.

Plaintiff does not identify an instance in which any court has ever required a ship owner unilaterally to provide legal counseling services to a seaman antecedent to honoring an assignment of wages contract between the seaman and a third party. The cited authorities on pages 19 and 20 of his principal brief (doc. 47) are readily distinguishable as arising in the release/settlement context and involving the employer's own contract, rather than a third-party agreement. See, e.g., Lewis v. Texaco, Inc., 527 F.2d 921, 926 (2nd Cir. 1975) (plaintiff seamen had waived and released their rights to payment under a wages statute without being informed of those rights); Sea-Land Service, Inc. v. Sellan, 64 F.Supp.2d 1255, 1260 (S.D.Fla. 1999) (addressing "enforceability of a seaman's release and settlement agreement," not an assignment of wages); Wink v. Rowan Drilling Co., 611 F.2d 98, 100 (5th Cir.1980) ("The burden is upon the party claiming settlement as a defense to prove that it was entered into by the seaman with a full understanding of his rights."). In this case, Smith was not entering into a settlement agreement or release, nor was he waiving statutory rights under § 11109(b). What's more, neither Seaport Marine nor Odyssea Marine ever attempted to enforce the portion of the PMA about which Smith contends Odyssea Marine owed him a "paternalistic obligation" of legal advice concerning the "irrevocable" character of the PMA, versus the non-binding character of assignments pursuant to § 11109(b). The authorities Smith cites simply do not stand for the proposition that Odyssea Marine was required to give Smith advice that the PMA contained a singular term that conflicted with § 11109(b) and to verify that Smith did not wish to exercise his legal right of revocation under § 11109(b) before honoring the PMA into which Smith and Seaport Marine had entered. No case has applied the "paternalistic obligation" line of authority so expansively. "Given the centuries of admiralty cases — including numerous cases involving seamen's wage claims ... the dearth of cases supporting [plaintiff]'s call for a newly minted fiduciary duty is telling." Thorman v. American Seafoods Co., 421 F.3d 1090, 1098 (9th Cir.2005) (citations omitted).23

Conversely, at least one federal appellate court has condemned attempts to broaden a ship owner's obligations in an analogous context. In Huseman v. Icicle Seafoods, Inc., 471 F.3d 1116 (9th Cir. 2006), the plaintiff was a seaman whose employer notified him of state worker's compensation remedies but not potential federal claims and benefits if he were injured on the job. He argued that he was entitled to equitable relief when he realized (after the relevant limitations period had run) that he wished to pursue federal Jones Act and unseaworthiness claims against the ship owner; indeed, the plaintiff argued that the ship owner had a duty to advise him about those federal remedies. The appellate court rejected this argument, reasoning that the plaintiff "was not misled by anything defendants said, did not say, or did. He was simply unaware that seamen enjoy special protections under the law and his employer was under no obligation to advise him on that point." Huseman, 471 F.3d at 1124. When the plaintiff invoked the "wards of the court" doctrine, the Huseman court resisted, finding that this "special scrutiny typically reserved for release of rights in seaman's contracts cannot be extended to the circumstances here." Id. at 1125. The court elaborated that "the scope of these special protections is not unlimited" and that "we decline to impose a general, all-encompassing fiduciary duty on ship owners to inform seamen of all potential federal claims and benefits and the process for securing them when the employee fails to make even a threshold inquiry." Id. The Court finds Huseman's reasoning persuasive and applicable to Smith's claims against Odyssea Marine.24

The Court's holding with respect to Smith's claims against Odyssea Marine is as follows: The paucity of record evidence that the PMA violated 46 U.S.C. § 11109(b); the absence of any indication that Smith ever objected to, inquired about, or was even aware of the "irrevocable" term in the PMA; and the equitable circumstances of Odyssea Marine having paid all wages owed to Smith in accordance with his unambiguous instructions (and for his own convenience) all, individually and collectively, foreclose plaintiff from recovering against Odyssea Marine on a claim for seaman's wages. The record is devoid of evidence that Smith was misled or otherwise injured, or that Odyssea Marine benefited from the PMA's "irrevocable" language. Under the circumstances, equitable maritime law principles do not allow Smith the windfall of doubling certain of his wages at Odyssea Marine's expense because of Odyssea Marine's transgression of honoring his contractual arrangement with a third party. Alternatively, the Court finds the reasoning of Huseman persuasive and declines to extend the "wards of admiralty" doctrine to impose on ship owners such as Odyssea Marine an affirmative obligation to scrutinize a seaman's wage assignment to which it a stranger, provide the seaman with unsolicited legal counsel about the enforceability of that agreement, and obtain confirmation in each pay period that the seaman in fact wished for the employer to pay his wages to the placement agency. Simply stated, Odyssea Marine had no legal or equitable duty to interject itself into a contract between Smith and a third party and impress upon him legal advice for which he never asked, much less tacit (or explicit) discouragement from doing that which he had agreed to do without objection or inquiry. Outside the release/settlement context (which is materially different and inapplicable here), no court appears ever to have imposed on a ship owner a duty analogous to plaintiff's insistence that Odyssea Marine should have "had Plaintiff affirm the directive of the PMA after advising him that it was legally non-binding each time before it forwarded his wages to Seaport" (doc. 74, at 3), despite Smith's failure ever to object, challenge or question the PMA to which he had voluntarily agreed. The undersigned will not be the first.

V. Conclusion.

For all of the foregoing reasons, the Court finds that there are no genuine issues of material fact, and that defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (doc. 46) is denied, and defendants' Motions for Summary Judgment (docs. 48, 68) are granted. Plaintiff's claims against both defendants are dismissed with prejudice. A separate judgment will enter.