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San Diego Boat Accident Lawyer - - Don't Let a Limitation Action Sink Your Boat Accident Case
A Limitation of Liability Action is a draconian law which may limit the value of a serious vessel accident claim to the value of the vessel. If the owner can prove the elements of a Limitation Action, they may be able to limit their liability to the vessel. Stated differently, all you could recover would be whatever the vessel that caused your injury was worth.
A Limitation of Liability Action
The Shipowners Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, ("the Act"), may limit the liability of the owner of a vessel to the value of the vessel. This is a unique maritime principal. The Act limits a vessel owners' liability for claims, arising from acts performed by a ship's crew without the owner's knowledge or privity, to the owners' interests in the ship.
Meaning the value of the boat or ship. If the ship's value is insufficient to satisfy all claims, the Act provides for equitable apportionment among the claimants.
Vessel owners must file a petition to limit liability in the appropriate federal district court within six months after a claimant notifies an owner of a claim. For purposes of the Act, the charterer of any vessel is deemed to be an owner.
A Limitation Action can literally draw your case into Federal Court. The Act provides for all claims against an owner to be aggregated and decided at one time under a single set of substantive and procedural rules, thereby avoiding inconsistent results and repetitive litigation. In other words it prevents multiple claims against a vessel owner.
The proceeding is before the admiralty court is designed in part to marshal available assets and to set priorities among the various claims. Limitation actions are equitable proceedings in which courts must consider "the rights of all claimants in addition to . . . the rights of the insureds and the insurors."
What does this mean to me?
As a practical matter a Limitation Action can limit your claim to the value of the vessel that caused your injury. This may not be a problem with a cruise ship. It can be a huge problem with a PWC or a ski boat when there are serious injuries or death. The doctrine is very harsh and unfair. It is usually strictly construed.
A proactive seasoned maritime attorney can sometimes defeat a Limitation Action before it is even filed. The Limitation Action requires strict compliance.
In boat collision case, when the owner of the vessel is driving the vessel, then a Limitation Action would not apply in almost, if not every, situation. Because the owner would have privity of the way he or she was commanding the vessel.
Another way to defeat a Limitation Action is to marshal the evidence such that you can prove privity of the owner of the vessel. That is the Owner of the vessel knew or should have known of the vessel's condition that caused the injury.
For example, in one Limitation Action the owner of a ski boat who was being pulled by a friend. That is the owner was skiing and his friend was operating the boat. The boat was going the wrong way on the Bay and plowed into a small raft, severely injuring the passengers.
The boat owner filed a Limitation Action. The Action was defeated because the owner of the vessel was being pulled as a skier and he could see that his friend was not following the proper counter clockwise rotation in the Bay. Thus, he had knowledge of the acts that were a cause of the collision and
Another Limitation Action was defeated by proving the non-skid on the ladder had been worn smooth for months, if not years, before a passenger slipped on the ladder and was seriously injured. There was plenty of time for the owner to have learned of the dangerous condition before the injury incident. Thus, there was privity (i.e.,knowledge).
In another example, months before the sinking, a mechanic had recommended fixing an electrical problem. An electrical fire caused the Captain and passengers to abandon ship. Two of the passengers drowned. The owner was found to have privity of the dangerous condition.
Disclaimer:
The foregoing is not legal advice. I am simplistic in order to achieve clarity. Your situation may differ from those being described in this article. The foregoing Limitation Action case studies are not meant to represent any particular case or situation. Any resemblance to any actual events or cases is purely accidental.
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So this is what we offer here: If you have a legal question about a boat accident, boat collision, boat injury or maritime law, and you want our advice - - we will answer the question for free. With no obligation.
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Second, This Free Legal Advice option does not apply to persons whom already have a lawyer. If you have the right lawyer, then they should be able to answer these questions.
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Phone: (619) 234-2833
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The San Diego, California personal injury law firm of The Turley Law Firm serves clients across Southern California area. We give you straight talk about your legal options. We have handled cases from San Diego to Imperial Beach to Oceanside to Escondido to El Cajon, everywhere in between, such as: Alpine, Camp Pendleton, Cardiff, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado, Del Mar, Eastlake, Encinitas, La Mesa, La Costa, La Jolla, Lakeside, Lemon Grove, Mission Bay, NAS San Diego, National City, Naval Station San Diego, North Island, North County, Pacific Beach, Point Loma, Port of San Diego, Poway, Ramona, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Fe, San Marcos, San Diego Harbor, Santee, Solana Beach, South Bay, Spring Valley, Vista.
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The Turley Law Firm, APLC
625 Broadway, Suite 625
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: 619-234-2833
Fax: 619-234-4048
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