In fatal boat case, firms cite 1851 law

Two companies facing multiple lawsuits over a summer tourist boat accident in Missouri that killed 17 people have invoked an 1851 law that allows vessel owners to try to avoid or limit legal damages as they also seek settlement negotiations with victims’ family members.

But Tia Coleman, an Indiana woman who survived the accident, and lawyers for others whose family members died denounced the filing Monday by attorneys for Ripley Entertainment Inc., based in Orlando, Fla., and Branson Duck Vehicles of Branson, Mo., as callous and insulting. The companies’ filing was in federal court in western Missouri, where multiple lawsuits are pending.

“Ripley’s inhuman legal ploy will sink as fast as their death trap duck boat did,” Robert Mongeluzzi, a Philadelphia attorney representing accident victims, said in a statement Monday night. “We will legally and factually demolish this frivolous claim.”

Ripley owns the Ride the Ducks operation on Table Rock Lake, while Branson Duck Vehicles owned the boats, which capsized in rough water on the lake after a storm moved through the area.

If a judge concluded that the federal law cited by Ripley and Branson Duck Vehicles applies, claims for damages over the July 19 accident could be consolidated into a single federal court case. The companies’ petition states that under the federal law, they would not owe any damages because the boat carried no freight and was a total loss.

The filing came less than a week after attorneys for Ripley and Branson Duck Vehicles asked U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool for a 90-day extension of court filing deadlines so that they could pursue a potential settlement. Harpool said he would consider the request at a Nov. 1 hearing.

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