LOS ANGELES (AP) – The owners of the dive boat where 34 people were killed in the southern California fire filed a lawsuit Thursday to end a potentially costly procedure, a decision condemned by some observers as disrespectful of the families of the dead.
Truth Aquatics Inc., the owner of Conception, sued the US District Court in Los Angeles under a pre-Civil War maritime law provision that limited its liability.
The investigators are still looking for what caused the fire that destroyed the boat, which remains upside down at the bottom of the sea near the Channel Islands.
The proven legal maneuver has been used successfully by the owners of the Titanic and by countless other craft – some as small as jet skis – and has been widely anticipated by maritime law experts. Nevertheless, the fact that it was filed just three days after the murder of hell Monday surprised legal observers.
The families of the deceased, who are not named in the complaint, will be informed that they have a limited time to challenge the company's efforts to get away from any negligence or limit its liability to the value of the remains. of the boat, which is necessary. a total loss.
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Dozens of dead after the fire of a boat off the California coast
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In this photo provided by the Ventura County Fire Department, VCFD firefighters respond to a boat fire on the south coast of California on Monday, September 2, 2019. The US Coast Guard has announced that it has launched several boats to helping more than two dozen "distressed" people off the coast of southern California. (Ventura County Fire Department via AP)
On this photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, firefighters extinguish a burning dive boat after a deadly fire broke out aboard a scuba diving boat off the coast. from the south coast of California on Monday, September 2, 2019. (Santa Claus Department of Fire Department of Barbara County via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ventura County Fire Department, VCFD firefighters respond to a boat fire on the south coast of California on Monday, September 2, 2019. The US Coast Guard has announced that it has launched several boats to helping more than two dozen "distressed" people off the coast of southern California. (Ventura County Fire Department via AP)
On this photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, a dive boat is in flames after a deadly fire broke out aboard the scuba diving vessel off the coast Southern California, Monday morning, September 2, 2019. (Fire Department of Santa Barbara County via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ventura County Fire Department, VCFD firefighters respond to a boat fire on the south coast of California on Monday, September 2, 2019. The US Coast Guard has announced that it has launched several boats to helping more than two dozen "distressed" people off the coast of southern California. (Ventura County Fire Department via AP)
A memorial to the victims of the Conception fire located near Truth Aquatics on Monday, September 2, 2019. A fire ravaged a boat carrying divers for scuba diving anchored near an island off from the south coast of California on Monday, leaving many people dead and full of hope. decreasing that one of the more than two dozen people still missing is found alive. (AP Photo / Stefanie Dazio)
Orlando Aldana, 42, of Santa Barbara, lights candles in the honor of the victims in front of the monument to the victims of the fire that occurred onboard the ship Conception, Monday, September 2, 2019 in Santa Barbara, California . a boat carrying recreational divers anchored near an island off the south coast of California on Monday morning, leaving many people dead and hoping to reduce the number of deaths among the more than two dozen still missing. (AP Photo / Stefanie Dazio)
A Ventura County fire truck leaves the Channel Islands US Coast Guard station in Oxnard, California on Monday, September 2, 2019. Several people are feared dead after a diving boat caught fire before dawn, Monday, off the south coast of California. (AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu)
An FBI agent arrives at the US Coast Guard Channel Islands Station in Oxnard, Calif., On Monday, September 2, 2019, while many people would be killed after a dive boat caught fire before the day. dawn, Monday, off the south coast of California. (AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu)
FBI and Coast Guard members work together at the US Coast Guard Channel Islands Station in Oxnard, California, on Monday, September 2, 2019, as several people are killed after a dive boat has taken Fire before dawn Monday, off the south coast of California. (AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu)
A woman is comforted by a member of the Ventura County Fire Department at the US Coast Guard Station at Channel Islands, Oxnard, California on Monday, September 2, 2019. Several people are dead fears after a Diving boat caught fire before dawn on Monday. Southern coast of California, according to the Coast Guard. (AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Coast Guard Captain Monica Rochester, right, addresses the media at the base of the US Coast Guard station at Channel Islands in Oxnard, California on Monday, September 2, 2019. A dive boat has caught fire before dawn Monday, off the south coast of California. Several crew members were saved and Lieutenant Cmdr. Matthew Kroll told the Associated Press that the Coast Guard was looking for other people who might have escaped the fire by jumping off the boat. (AP Photo / Stefanie Dazio)
CALIFORNIA shaded relief map, highlighted with SACRAMENTO (capital) and fire locators, partial graph
Coast Guard crews leave the Channel Islands US Coast Guard station to visit the site of the boat that burned and sank off the Santa Cruz Islands early in the morning at the Coast Guard Base in Oxnard. California, September 2, 2019. – A commercial dive boat sank early in the midst of the flames off the south coast of California and 34 passengers were reported missing, the US Coast Guard said. Five members of the Conception team were awake and jumped into the water when the flames erupted around 3:15 am (10:15 GMT), Coast Guard Captain Monica Rochester told reporters at the press. a televised briefing. She said that 34 people – not the 33 reported earlier by the Coast Guard – were missing when the Conception sank 20 meters offshore, leaving only its exposed arc. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP) (Photo credit must match MARK RALSTON / AFP / Getty Images)
Coast Guard crews leave the Channel Islands US Coast Guard station to visit the site of the boat that burned and sank off the Santa Cruz Islands early in the morning at the Coast Guard Base in Oxnard. California, September 2, 2019. – A commercial dive boat sank early in the midst of the flames off the south coast of California and 34 passengers were reported missing, the US Coast Guard said. Five members of the Conception team were awake and jumped into the water when the flames erupted around 3:15 am (10:15 GMT), Coast Guard Captain Monica Rochester told reporters at the press. a televised briefing. She said that 34 people – not the 33 reported earlier by the Coast Guard – were missing when the Conception sank 20 meters offshore, leaving only its exposed arc. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP) (Photo credit must match MARK RALSTON / AFP / Getty Images)
A US Coast Guard crew leaves the US Coast Guard station to visit the site of the boat that burned and sank off the Santa Cruz Islands early in the morning at the Coast Guard Base in Oxnard, California September 2, 2019. – A commercial scuba diving boat sank at the start of the Southern California Flame and 34 people went missing, the US Coast Guard said. Five members of the Conception team were awake and jumped into the water when the flames erupted around 3:15 am (10:15 GMT), Coast Guard Captain Monica Rochester told reporters at the press. a televised briefing. She said that 34 people – not the 33 reported earlier by the Coast Guard – were missing when the Conception sank 20 meters offshore, leaving only its exposed arc. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP) (Photo credit must match MARK RALSTON / AFP / Getty Images)
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"They force these people to submit their applications and present them now," said attorney Charles Naylor, who represents victims in maritime law cases. "They have six months to do it.They could let these people bury their children.It's shocking."
Professor Martin J. Davies, Director of Maritime Law at Tulane University, said that cases still follow accidents at sea and still look bad, but that they are usually initiated by insurance companies to limit losses.
"It seems like a pretty cruel thing to do, but it's still happening, they're just protecting their position," Davies said. "This produces very unpleasant results in dramatic cases like this … The optics are awful."
US law dates back to 1851, but has its origins in the 18th century in England, said Davies. It was designed to encourage the shipping industry. Every country with a marine industry has something similar in the books.
To enforce, the company and its owners, Glen and Dana Fritzler, must prove that they were not at fault in the disaster.
In the lawsuit, they claimed to have "taken reasonable steps to make the Conception fit for sailing, and it has always been both narrow, firm and strong, fully and properly equipped, equipped and provided, and in all respects seaworthy and worthy of the service in which she was engaged. "
Even if the captain or crew are found liable, the Fritzler and his insurance company could avoid paying a penny under the law, experts said.
All those who died were in a dormitory under the main deck. Officials said the 33 passengers and one crew member had no opportunity to escape the flames.
Crew members told investigators that they had repeatedly tried to rescue the trapped people before abandoning the vessel, the National Transportation Safety Board said. None of the survivors spoke publicly.
The court record seeks not only to protect boat owners from legal exposure, but will also require any legal action to be taken in the same federal court.
A judge will hold a non-jury trial to see if the company can prove that she was not at fault. If this is the case, all plaintiffs would only be entitled to the value of the ship's remains, which, according to the lawsuit, amounts to a worthless total loss.
There is a long history of ship owners who have successfully affirmed this protection. The case concerning the White Star Line, the owners of the Titanic, was up to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that a foreign owner could assert the protection of the Limitation Act, said the lawyer James Mercante.
In this case, the plaintiffs finally withdrew their lawsuits and filed them in England, where the company was based. British law, although it also limited damage, guaranteed a greater gain than the value of the remaining lifeboats.
Although the law can protect property owners from damages, more than 90 percent of cases involving injuries or death are settled before the trial, Mercante said.
Lawyer A. Barry Cappello, in discussion with another firm to represent in court the family members of the victims of Conception, said that there was a strong case to demonstrate negligence in the case. fire of the boat and that good lawyers could find a way to circumvent the right of the admiralty in federal law. court.
"The law is so outdated and so biased in favor of shipowners that damages for wrongful death cases are very limited, unless one can prove exceptions," Cappello said.
Cappello recently won a case in which a company that had rented a paddle board to a man who drowned in Santa Barbara Harbor had claimed responsibility for his liability. One judge ruled that the admiralty law did not apply to such trades, although the company appealed.
Davies said that after what he had heard about the disaster, it was realistic to think that the owner could carry it out if the boat was properly equipped and if the cause of the disaster was there. The fire remained mysterious.
If the owner loses, there is an unlimited liability potential.
"That's why the fight is always a matter of limitation because if you have unlimited liability, well … 30 dead is a lot of money," said Davies.
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