An alcohol-fueled brawl on a dock in a marina near the Long Island Sound does not fall within a federal court’s admiralty jurisdiction, a federal appeals court has held.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said the owners of a boat involved in the incident cannot invoke admiralty law’s limitation on tort liability for incidents at sea, in a case where the fight took place among recreational visitors on and around a permanent dock surrounded by navigable water.