I’ll try to explain it like this. Captain Sullenberger and his crew suffered an emergency and ditched into a river (probably above MLW).
Your explanations of legal matters is beyond my abilities and knowledge level to do anything but accept them as coming from a knowledgeable person. When however you stray into assumptions about operational matters can I respectfully suggest that you do not include them in your explanations. Specifically the bit in the quote, you don't know so don't include it. It is quite probable that the aircraft was not above MLW as it would be totally dependent on his ZFW and the FOB when he struck the birds. All this would require knowledge of his payload and sector length to determine what his EFBO and the FOB at dispatch was likely to be.