Liability waivers signed by passengers on a submersible lost at sea during a dive on the Titanic wreck may not protect the ship’s owner from possible lawsuits by the victims’ families, the legal experts said.
The Titan submersible disappeared Sunday about two hours into its dive and was found crushed on the sea floor after what the US Coast Guard said Thursday was a “catastrophic implosion” of its pressure chamber.
The passengers, who paid $250,000 each for the trip to 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) below the surface, are believed to have signed a liability waiver. A CBS reporter who traveled with OceanGate Expeditions in July 2022 reported that the waiver he signed mentioned the possibility of death three times on the first page alone.
Reuters could not independently confirm the terms of OceanGate’s waivers.
OceanGate did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Waivers are not always ironclad, and it is common for judges to reject them when there is evidence of gross negligence or risks that were not fully disclosed.
“If there are aspects of the design or construction of this vessel that are hidden from the passengers or it is known to be operated despite the information that it is not suitable for this dive, that is completely against the validity of the waiver,” said personal injury. attorney and maritime law expert Matthew D. Shaffer, based in Texas.
OceanGate can argue that this is not negligent and that the waivers apply because they fully describe the dangers inherent in plumbing the deepest part of the ocean in a submersible the size of a minivan.
The level of any potential negligence and what effect the use of waivers may have will depend on the factors of the disaster, which are still under review.
“There are many different examples of how families may still have claims despite the waivers, but until we know the reason we won’t know if the waivers are applicable,” the lawyer said. in personal injury Joseph Low of California.
The families could not be reached Thursday. It is possible that none of them will sue.
OceanGate is a small company based in Everett, Washington, and it’s unclear if it has the assets to pay for extensive damages, if any, but the families could collect from the company’s insurance policy if it does. one.
The families can also seek damages from any outside parties who designed, helped build or manufacture components for the Titan if they are proven negligent and a cause of the explosion.
‘DEATH ON THE HIGH SEAS’
OceanGate may seek to protect itself from damages by filing a so-called limitation of liability action under maritime law, which allows owners of vessels involved in an accident to ask a federal court to limit any damages to the current value of the vessel. Since the Titan was destroyed, that would be zero.
But OceanGate must prove it was unaware of the submersible’s potential defects and bear the burden of proof, which legal experts say is a difficult burden to meet.
If OceanGate fails in such a case, the families would be free to file negligent or wrongful death lawsuits.
Another maritime law, the Death on the High Seas Act, allows the financial dependents of a person who dies in an accident at sea to seek only the portion of that person’s future earnings that they would otherwise have received. . Plaintiffs cannot recover damages for pain and suffering in such cases.
What OceanGate knows about the ship’s safety and what passengers say about it are key questions during discovery, a process where parties share information about a case.
Plaintiffs can cite allegations of safety lapses at OceanGate made by a former employee in a 2018 lawsuit against the company in federal court in Washington. The employee, David Lochridge, said he raised “serious safety concerns” but was ignored. That case was settled on undisclosed terms, court records show.
A group of industry leaders also wrote to OceanGate in 2018 expressing serious concerns about the ship’s safety and the company’s decision not to certify the Titan through third parties such as the American Bureau of Shipping , a leading classification of submersibles.
Photo: (Alan Berner/The Seattle Times via AP)
Topics
Lawsuits
Interested in Lawsuits?
Get automatic alerts for this topic.
