Boat Owners Limit Liability in Lawsuits Over Accidental Deaths

Two boat owners facing tort suits involving accidental deaths related to their vessels may limit their liability to the value of their vessels, even though the district courts said that their limitation suits were untimely, the Ninth Circuit said.

The case allowed the court to address two issues of first impression for it: whether the six-month limitations period in the Shipowner’s Limitation of Liability Act is jurisdictional and what constitutes the “written notice of a claim” needed to start the period running.

In one case, a passenger was killed when the raft she was on in an Alaskan lake was ...