Civil Litigation,
Criminal
Sep. 6, 2019
1851 maritime law complicates litigation from deadly boat fire
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukani LLP has been hired to represent Truth Aquatics, whose dive boat caught fire and killed 34 people Monday morning, in an action filed Thursday seeking to be exonerated from or limitation of liability. Maritime legal experts have differing views on how the federal statute might apply in future civil litigation, along with the Ship owner’s Limitation of Liability Act, enacted in 1851, which Truth Aquatics invoked in their complaint for exoneration.
Days after a tragic boat fire killed 34 people near Santa Cruz Island in Ventura County, owners of the ill-fated vessel filed a lawsuit for exoneration from or limitation of liability, as many maritime legal experts predicted would happen, but not this quickly.
Conception, owned by Santa Barbara-based Truth Aquatics, caught fire and sank around 3:30 Monday morning while anchored off Santa Cruz Island. Five crew members on the upper ...
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