Posted by Brendon Baillod on September 27, 19102 at 15:43:15:
In Reply to: Re: Putting lines on wrecks posted by Jon Van Harpen on September 27, 19102 at 12:50:48:
Actually, I don't think anyone would be likely to be found liable for a fatality after all was said and done because they placed a mooring buoy. The problem is that they would be found not guilty after an expensive protracted court battle waged by an insurance company. Anybody with enough money can drag someone else into court, especially where a fatality, a bereaved family and an insurance company that has to pay death benfits is involved.
However, I think the actual incidence of legal troubles resulting from wreck diving fatalities on the Great Lakes is pretty low. Of the many dive fatalities that I've tracked, only a small handful actually resulted in frivolous or misguided attempts at prosecution either by family members or insurance companies. In a very small number of cases, the prosecution was warranted because someone was really negligent (i.e. providing defective equipment, failing to check for a cert card, etc.)
Despite all the discussion that I've seen over the past few years on the topic of responsibility for mooring buoys, dive guides, etc, I think the legal risk, while definitely there, is realistically pretty small. Most lawyers won't go after a party unless they smell money. That's why few individuals are named as defendants unless they were really negligent. Insurance companies are far more likely to go after equipment manufacturers, dive charter operators, and organizations with cash and assets.
So, it's important not to get overly paranoid about dive accident liability. While it's an ever-present risk that people need to be aware of, I don't think it should stop anyone from putting a buoy on a wreck. Frankly, you're more likely to be sued because someone hit your buoy that because someone used it to dive and had an accident.
: : : : : We are technical Great Lakes Michigan divers that put lines on wrecks that are deep (beyond sport diving limits)and leave them for the diving season. If a sport diver or any diver uses one of our lines and dies can we be held responsible??? I hope not!! We do this for our safety and wreck preservation. Does anybody know???
: : : : In the state of Wisconsin we looked at the laws and consulted an attorney about bouying wrecks. The attorney stated that the state itself was less vunerable to law suits. In a case over a drowned youth at a state park the parents suid the state claming the beach was posted as having a life guard on duty when in reality the person did not show up for work. The lawsuit was filed on a law that Attractive nusaince where as someone states or makes an something look safe but is not. States have more protection from these lawsuits but not individuales also if the line or chain could be said to damage the wreck there could be problem's there. For your own protection I wouldn't advertize that you put the bouy there altough in the long run its probably safer to the wreck and the divers diving it.
: : Well lets see??? I guess the guy that sold me my gear is liable because he did not put a limit on the depth to use it at and the shop that filled my tank did not inform be to use the air only to a specific depth and the company that sold me my wet suit forgot to tell me about hypothermia at depth.and that would make the company that built my boat liable because they made it possible to arrive at he wreck and lets not forget the GPS and depth sounder manufacture that made it possible to locate the wreck also the guy that gave me the coordinates or the author of a dive book that showed pictures that got my interest up in a specific wreck. Oh what the hell might just as well sue my dead mother for giveing birth to me in the first place. Tim
: It's sad but to tell you the truth that's what happen's attorney's will take anbody remotly involved to court figuring somebody will pay. And maybe the manufacture of the GPS doesn't have deep pockets so the boat manufacture does. In one case that I know of in Wisconsin two guy's in a bar playing darts (soft tip) one guy throw's a dart at his buddy hits him in the eye he loses the sight in the eye, his buddy doesn't have a pot to piss in so the attorney takes the Bar the Manufacturer of the Dart Machine and the maker of the darts to court, the person at fault goes back to his pot unscathed. We all should be more resonsible for our selfs and not try to blame our own mistakes on others. As I said in the first place the bouy's are safer to the wrecks and divers diving them.