Lawsuit against boat manufacturer

[SkiTower]

would that apply to riding on the 'sundeck'? I've seen that a lot and it scares me, big time. Nobody rides in my boat unless you're sitting in a seat, or holding on to a rope!

[WakeSlayer]

would that apply to riding on the 'sundeck'? I've seen that a lot and it scares me, big time. Nobody rides in my boat unless you're sitting in a seat, or holding on to a rope!

Anything but seated inside the boat is against the law and and expensive ticket in MN, and I assume most, if not all, other states.

[Quinner]

Without having sat through the trial or knowing all the details it is all speculation, of the few details in the linked articles you certainly would cite driver error as the primary cause however, and the injuries sustained by one of the girls sounds quite significant, which is very unfortunate.

Using my 206 as an example, believe the plate states 8 person capacity, if 7 were in the bow I would imagine it would be almost impossible to navigate safely, if at all.

Should the judgement remain, would imagine Mastercraft is insured to a point, if their liabilty extends beyond that it certainly could be a serious problem for them to contend with, which also is very unfortunate.

[swc5150]

I'm sure the government will mandate the addition of one more warning sticker in the boat, stating the bow capacity. Problem solved!

I do feel horrible and sad for those injured.

[cotton]

I'm a corporate lawyer, not a litigator, for this exact reason. Vedicts like this makes me sick.

Chexi, have you read The Rise and Fall of the house of Zeus and/or Kings of Tort?

[east tx skier]

I hope they fight this tooth and nail on appeal. I agree with Chexi that a lot can happen in the appellate courts. I have spent the last 10 years of my career as a judicial appellate attorney and have seen most of the spectrum of judgments.

Hard for me to understand how the driver and unfortunate passengers didn't absorb the brunt of the responsibility for this accident. Certainly not the first overloaded boat I have seen. All the warning stickers in the world would not have dissuaded these idiots.

[Quinner]

I have spent the last 10 years of my career as a judicial appellate attorney

Ouch Tex, that's going to kill your rep power, LOL. Kidding of course.

Putting blame on the passengers is tough, you would think common sense would tell them what they were doing was unsafe however often times I have had people on my boat who are completely clueless about boating and would not necessarily recognize the dangers that a veteran boater should see.

[east tx skier]

Ha! I know. Judicial attorney --- reviled by the right.

I walk a fine line on giving any kind of opinions on this stuff. In my job, I'm a mechanic. Check emotion and personal views at the door. Fairness under the law as it exists is my priority. Interpret the law. Don't make it.

But for this job, I might not still be a lawyer. It's the perfect fit for me.

The bulk of the blame obviously lies with the operator. But passengers hanging over the bow (possibly) or piling 12 up front can't be blameless. Common sense needs to go all around.

I hate it for MC. Could have just as easily been a Malibu or Correct Craft.

[Chexi]

I didn't realize you too were an attorney ETS. We'll have to meet up one of these days. One of my best friends at my firm is an appellate attorney. When it comes to trashing trial lawyers and trial court judges, no one does it better than an appellate attorney!

[mnwild2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68AOltMu768

WakeSlayer, is that an MN. registration in this video?? Yes, just looked again and it's from waterskis.com, Midwest Mastercraft!!

[jmo]

I wonder if during the trial MC provided video footage of what the boat looks like with 12 people in bow? Clearly that would have illustrated how idiotic it was of the people involved to stack it like that.

[BrearlyMason]

I just ordered the LexisNexis report... will post when I get it.


Bell v. Montz, and Mastercraft. Expert for the plaintiff. Boating
accident on Lake Oroville in Northern California. Boat was a 24-
foot, open bow, Mastercraft X45 with 18 people on board. The
operator was trying to tow a wake boarder, couldn’t get up on a
plane, so he had 8 passengers move forward to the bow. When
the operator slowed the boat after the wakeboarder fell, several
passengers, including the 19 year old plaintiff washed off the boat.
The operator drove in a circle and ran over two women in the water.
The plaintiff suffered numerous injuries from coming in contact with
the prop injuries, including brain damage.
Reference: Robert Bale, Esq., (916) 379-3500 (O), (916) 379-3599 (F)
Consultant to: Law Offices of Donald J. Deshaw
(In-house Counsel for Safeco Insurance)
Location: 2730 Gateway Oaks, Suite 210
Sacramento, CA 95833
Year(s): 2006

[74green]

Sincere for the injuries caused to the victim, but the bow dipping under a manufacture’s flaw… wow… if they were having trouble getting on plane I wonder how much ballast they were running on top of the 19 people.

[SkiTower]

I'm sorry, but this sounds like a very bad defense. I thought about it a lot this past week on vacation and just can't imagine this being a design flaw...this is operator error 100%.

[skiswm]

I sure hope MC fights this verdict hard, I'd hate to see them go out of business or have to be sold because of this verdict. Sadly Lake Oroville is known as a bit of a wild lake and has had many issues in the past. I know some guys from the area and they often joke they are 2 of the only area residents that have all their own teeth. I also know people who have visited the lake and had to deal with many drunks and pulled more than a few people out of the water because they were too drunk to swim.

As for the 1/2 a brain, the X45 is not a little boat or inexpensive boat......maybe they were driving "daddy's boat" but still that's an expensive boat that someone should have known how to operate.