A US court has denied a sailor’s request to confiscate Oracle Team USA’s hydrofoiling AC45-Class racing catamaran as a seaman’s lien against unpaid wages.

Joe Spooner, who served as a grinder with Oracle at the 33rd and 34th America’s Cups, filed suit in a US District Court asking federal marshals to “arrest” the 45-foot catamaran that the two-time America’s Cup champion rolled out in San Francisco Bay last week and keeps at Pier 80.

Spooner said in his filing that his contract for $25,000 a month was terminated last month without cause. His total claim is for $750,000.

However, after reviewing both parties’ arguments, the court concluded that “no basis for a maritime lien is apparent from Spooner’s complaint and therefore declines to issue a warrant to arrest the vessel”.

Sir Russell Coutts, Oracle Team USA’s CEO, said the American syndicate’s AC45, which is presently undergoing tests in San Francisco, is due to arrive in Bermuda by the end of May.

Court documents show that Spooner entered into a maritime services contract with Oracle Racing in December 2013 to serve “as a member of the sailing team of Oracle Team USA”.

The Kiwi sailor alleges that as a result of this contract he “was employed by defendants as a member of the crew aboard (the Vessel), in the service of the vessel, and in the course and scope of his duties as a seaman in furtherance of the mission and commerce of the vessel crewed, maintained and repaired said vessel”.

The contract “commenced on February 1, 2014, for a fixed term of over three and a half years,” to expire seven days following the last race of the 35th America’s Cup finals to be held in Bermuda in June 2017.

From July 1, 2014 through the expiration of the contract, Spooner was to be paid $25,000 per calendar month. The contract also provided that Spooner would receive a bonus of not less than six months’ pay if Oracle Team USA successfully defended its title at the 35th America’s Cup, and that he would be reimbursed for “any other business expenses ... properly and necessarily incurred”.

Spooner alleges that Oracle Racing, Inc wrongfully, and without cause, breached its contractual obligations by discharging him from “performing his contractual services” and asked the court to declare that he holds a maritime lien against the vessel, and to arrest the vessel for potential condemnation and sale. In their defence, Oracle argued that there is no breach of a maritime contract because they were within their rights in terminating the contract.

Oracle further argued that there is no breach of a maritime lein for unpaid wages because Spooner has not alleged that he was not paid for any services rendered and because relevant provisions of the Seaman’s Wages Act exclude yachts and because the syndicate’s AC45 was not launched until after the Kiwi’s contract was terminated.

The court determined that Spooner’s allegations do not support the existence of a lien on either of those bases. And, because wages and necessaries were the only grounds for a maritime lien discussed in Spooner’s complaint and contemporaneous supporting papers, the court was unable to find that the conditions for an in rem action appear to exist, and declined to direct the clerk to issue a warrant for Oracle’s AC45.