by Bob Walsh
Maritime law is an arcane specialty. Truth Aquatics Inc., the owner of the Conception, the dive boat that burned, killing 33 passengers and one crew member, has filed a "legal action" in U. S. District Court in an effort to limit liability.
This sort of filing has been used since before the civil war. The owners of the Titanic filed such a suit. Owners of jet skis that were involved in serious accidents have also done so. This, among other things, forces possibly claimants to file within six months of the date of occurrence. The suits are customarily filed by the insurance company and not necessariiy by the owners or operators of the boat.
The U. S. law has been on the books since 1851. Virtually all maritime countries have similar laws, which were originally passed to encourage shipping by providing some limits to liability filing. Assuming the suit is successful it would limit the total value of any payout to the equal of what is left of the vessel. The trial is held before a judge, without a jury.
The crew has not spoken in publlc about the incident, but they apparently did make a meaningful effort to rescue the passengers. The crew member who got a broken leg received the injury jumping down from the bridge to the deck in an effort to open the doors to the galley. The doors were fully engulfed by that time. It seems that it is likely the fire started in the galley though some thing it might have started with a bunch of electrical devices that were being charged. The crew also moved forward in an effort to somehow force open windows in the passenger berth area, but were unsuccessful in that attempt as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment