NY Ferry Crash Claims Hit $2.2 Billion
By Daniel Hays
NU Online News Service, Dec. 2, 3:55 p.m. EDT? New York City has moved in federal court to invoke a maritime statute it says would limit plaintiffs' attempts to recover $2.2 billion in death and injury claims arising from October's Staten Island Ferry crash to $14.4 million.
But an attorney for one of the crash victims said today that the filing was an attempt at intimidation to compel quick settlements and that in a very similar New York City boat case an effort to use the same statute had failed.[@@]
Kate O'Brien Ahlers, communications director for the New York City Law Department, said the city's action in Brooklyn Federal Court to consolidate all claims and limit liability to the value of the vessel stemmed from Federal Maritime Law based on Common Law that was codified in the 1800s. Under that law, recovery is limited to the value of the vessel involved.
She said claim monies paid as part of settlements would be outside of the $14.4 million figure, which would be the total available to all persons who sued.
As of this morning Ms. Ahlers said the city had received 94 notices of claims, or intention to sue, and that two or three suits had actually been filed. Ten persons were killed and more than 70 injured on Oct. 15 when a ferryboat, instead of docking in a berth lined with wooden pilings, crashed into a cement pier 900 feet away.
The city has fired Capt. Michael Gansas who, according to some accounts, was missing from the bridge when Assistant Capt. Richard Smith was at the controls. The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office is investigating the case.
Sanford Rubenstein, a New York attorney who represents a passenger who suffered a broken back and other injuries, said the limits in the maritime statute were invoked unsuccessfully in 1982 when a Circle Line sightseeing boat crashed and injured 50 people.
He said the limitation does not apply when the owner of the vessel involved is negligent. According to Mr. Rubenstein the city should have known "there was a pattern and practice of rules not being followed" during docking procedures.
"This is an attempt by the City of New York to try and use this [law] as a hammer over the heads of victims, including widows and people who have lost limbs. They are using it as a hammer."
Asked if she knew when the law was last tested, Ms. Ahlers said she had made inquiries and would provide the information when she had it.
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