Customer accuses boat steering mechanism manufacturer of negligence

Customer accuses boat steering mechanism manufacturer of negligence: CLEARWATER — An Oklahoma man is suing the manufacturer of a boat steering mechanism, alleging product liability.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Fire

CNN) -- A voice on the intercom woke Danielle Miller and told her to put on her life jacket and run to a deck. Not knowing what the emergency was, she nervously woke up her roommate and did just that.

The emergency, as she and other passengers would learn, was a fire that started in the rear of Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas cruise ship about 2:50 a.m. Monday while it was heading to the Bahamas, sending guests to the decks under the night sky.

Though it never lost power, the ship was diverted to Freeport in the Bahamas, and the fire, which began in a mooring area, was extinguished just before 5 a.m., the company said.

The ship's 2,224 guests and 796 crew members initially were headed to CocoCay, Bahamas, but the ship was redirected to Freeport for evaluation, Royal Caribbean said.

Texas law firm sued for allegedly filing incorrect Jones Act lawsuit

A Mexican national is filing a lawsuit against a Texas law firm for improperly filing a lawsuit against his employer causing his workers' compensation benefits to be terminated. Juan Puga filed suit against The Hastings Law Firm and Tommy R. Hastings on March 3 in federal court in New Orleans. According to the complaint, on Sept. 24, 2008, Puga was employed by Fluid Crane and Construction Inc. as a pipe welder when he was injured off the coast of Louisianan while being transferred from a vessel in a personnel basket. The lawsuit claims that Puga was solicited by the Hastings Law Firm within one week of the accident, while he was still in a Louisiana hospital. When he signed an attorney-client contract, he was receiving compensation benefits from Fluid Crane's carrier in excess of $1,000 per week, plus all medical expenses. The Hastings Law Firm filed a Jones Act lawsuit against Fluid Crane in Brazoria County District Court. The Hastings Law Firm argued that Puga was a Jones Act seaman and as a result, Fluid Crane terminated the compensation benefits and began paying him maintenance at $15 per day. Puga states his employer had no exposure to liability as a result of being his employer and his non-seaman status. He states he attempted to contact the law firm about the loss of his benefits but was unable to receive a reply. He terminated their representation in December 2008.

Seaman seeks $5M for wrongful termination after head injury

GALVESTON - Claiming he was wrongfully terminated after receiving a head injury on the job, a Galveston County seaman is seeking $5 million from his former employer. James Gowdy filed a Jones Act suit against Kinder Morgan Inc. on Jan. 13 in Galveston County District Court. He alleges he was injured on March 24 while working aboard the M/V Audrey. According to the original petition, Gowdy and a co-worker were tightening a mechanical wench when the co-worker lost control of a stainless steel teeter bar. The bar then shot across the deck and struck Gowdy in the head, the lawsuit states. Gowdy claims he recalls nothing after the incident until he woke up five hours later in a Sulphur, La., hospital, the suit says. The suit states that Gowdy sustained contusions and abrasions as well as injuries to his neck, legs and other parts of his body. He says he was unable to maintain his balance after the injury and unable to return to work. Gowdy claims his employment was then terminated. He consequently seeks a jury trial along with the $5 million in damages. The Buzbee Law Firm is representing the plaintiff, and Galveston County 56th District Court Judge Lonnie Cox is presiding over the case.

Critics call Valdez cleanup a warning for Gulf workers - Workers getting sick - Flu like symptoms and illness

Anchorage, Alaska (CNN) -- Two decades ago, Roy Dalthorp helped clean up the rocky shores of Prince William Sound after the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground, producing what was then the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Today, with that record surpassed by the 11-week-old disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Dalthorp struggles to breathe. He coughs, and his failing eyes sometimes tear up uncontrollably. Dalthorp told CNN that he was "slowly poisoned" during the Alaska cleanup effort -- and he says some of those now working to clean up the BP spill off Louisiana and neighboring states are risking the same fate.

People Getting Sick from BP oil spill - Gulf Oil Disaster: BP Cover Up of Sick Humans and Dead Animals

Jurors find boat manufacturer partly liable

A federal jury Monday found a boat manufacturer partially liable for a 2005 incident on Lake Austin in which a teen's leg was severed by a propeller. Jurors ordered the company to pay $3.8 million in medical expenses and damages. After deliberating for about seven hours, jurors found that the Brunswick Corp. shared more than half of the blame for the accident that severely injured Jacob Brochtrup, who was then 18. Brunswick officials said in a statement after the verdict that they "stand behind our products, which are used safely and properly by boaters around the world." Jurors found that Brochtrup also was responsible, as was the driver of the boat.

Driver of boat gives his account

Todd Spangler said he didn't whip an inner tube carrying two women into a dock at West Shores Lake. Spangler said the women — his wife, Kim, and their close friend, Jennifer Finke-Dwyer — “skipped across the water like a rock” and didn't hit the dock until 3 to 6 seconds after they had fallen off of the tube he pulled behind his boat.

Crime or tragic accident? --Trial opens in boating fatality

The driver of a boat on trial for negligent homicide in the Father's Day 2008 death of a 34-year-old Meredith woman had a blood-alcohol level one-and-a-half times the legal limit of .08 when the power boat she was piloting hit Diamond Island, according to the state. Prosecutor Jim Carroll told jurors during opening arguments Monday in the trial of Erica Blizzard, 37, of 36 Gold Street, Lakeport, that the defendant was "impaired" when she crashed the 37-foot 2008 Formula 370 SS she was piloting into the 27-acre island located in The Broads — the widest section of the lake.

3 families in fatal boat crash suing Coast Guard

Three Rancho Peñasquitos families involved in a Coast Guard boat crash that killed an 8-year-old boy in December sued the federal government yesterday for wrongful death and negligence, with hopes of making the service overhaul how it operates on San Diego Bay. Five days before Christmas, Anthony Cole DeWeese was on his family’s 24-foot Sea Ray with 12 others attending the San Diego Bay Parade of Lights when the pleasure craft was hit by a 33-foot Coast Guard vessel rushing to help a grounded boater.

Boat Owner Alleges Ethanol Damage In Lawsuit

SEBRING - A Highlands County man has sued five of the nation's biggest oil companies, alleging one sold 10 percent ethanol fuel that damaged his boat's engine.Erick Kelecseny contacted the Fort Lauderdale personal injury law firm Kopelowitz Ostrow, who filed suit Aug. 12 in U.S. District Court. They allege that Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP America, Shell and ConocoPhillips know about the problems ethanol causes to causes boats, but continue to market blended gasoline to the marine industry. Kelecseny seeks punitive damages and class-action status to include all Florida boat owners whose vessels were damaged by the blended gas. According to an April 9 story carried on Dow Jones newswires, another federal class action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles has charged ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell and other oil companies are selling ethanol blended gasoline that damages marine fuel tanks, engines and other components.

Horizon Lines settles class action with $20m payment

HORIZON Lines has agreed to pay $20m and freeze freight rates in its Puerto Rico trade lane for two years to settle a class action lawsuit brought by disgruntled customers. New York-listed Horizon Lines has also agreed to pay its lenders 1.5% higher interest and a one-off sum of $1.8m in consideration for being allowed to exclude this expenditure from calculations that determine its compliance with covenants

Leading boating danger on Intracoastal Waterway: careless boating

PALM VALLEY- Careless boating is the leading infraction that boaters commit on the Palm Valley Intracoastal Waterway and it has sure taken its toll this year, a state official said this week. As of late May, three boating accidents have been reported on the waterway, compared to none as of this time last year, said Lt. Steve Zukowsky with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Lady Mary Video

Underwater footage of fishing boat Lady Mary The Coast Guard working with the New Jersey State Police verified the position of the fishing boat Lady Mary, which sank southeast of Cape May on Wednesday, April 29, 2009, with the use of a remotely operated vehicle. The external survey by the ROV shows the Lady Mary generally sitting upright on the bottom. The survey did not reveal any evidence of the remaining missing crew members. (Video provided by the US Coast Guard and New Jersey State Police) Uploaded by ssiditsk on 05/06/09

Lady Mary Sinking - Coast Guard Hearing

Error in recording emerg radio (epirb) hurt search Vessel monitoring system programmer: 2 dozen boats near Lady Mary did not aid sinking vessel.Two dozen boats were in the general area of a stricken scalloping vessel when it sank off Cape May in March, but none came to its aid or joined a later search for survivors, a U.S. fisheries representative told a Coast Guard inquest board today. Testimony: Two boats passed near sinking trawler

CAPE MAY, N.J. - For two to three hours after a scallop boat is believed to have sunk off Cape May, the Coast Guard heard no mayday calls or any other radio reports that something was wrong. That was the testimony Monday from two Coast Guard officers as the agency resumed its hearing into the sinking of the Lady Mary, which went down off Cape May on March 24. Only one the seven crew members survived. The lapse in time from when the boat is believed to have sunk, and when the Coast Guard first heard something was wrong continued to be a main focus of the inquiry. The hearing was suspended in April to allow the ship's captain to hire a lawyer. A Coast Guard inspector says the Lady Mary passed a safety inspection last July. In another article it was said: Two crew members of the doomed scallop boat that sank off the coast last month may have been under the influence of marijuana when the ship went down, killing six of the seven crew members aboard, a witness in the hearing of the fatal sinking testified this morning. Timothy Smith, who died in the sinking, had high levels of the components of marijuana in the blood samples analyzed after the March 24 sinking, said Anthony Costantino, president and CEO of Drug Scan, the Pennsylvania lab hired by the U.S. Coast Guard to analyze the results of the blood tests. Another story goes on: A scallop boat that sank off the coast of Cape May may have tangled its fishing gear with another ship or an obstruction on the bottom of the ocean, the attorney for the ship's owner said yesterday. A cutter with a ROV was used to look at the vessel.

This article indicates that that Owner of the Lady Mary was critical of the Coast Guard Response.

Maersk Alabama Crew Member Files Lawsuit Against Ship Owner - Legal principles behind the claim

From the gcaptain:,

Today, in the 270th Judicial District Court in Houston, Harris County, Texas a lawsuit (case 2009-26129) was filed on behalf of Mr. Richard Hicks, a steward on board the Maersk Alabama. The suit alleges that Maesrk was negligent and that the Maersk Alabama was “unseaworthy” as that term is defined by federal maritime law. If you practice maritime law, you knew this was inevitable. We all know the facts as Captain Phillips’ plight was plastered over our televisions over Easter weekend and we all prayed for his safe return. However, it is not Captain Phillips who is suing Maersk. It is, instead, another crewmember who was on board the Maersk.