Cyrus Dugger

Judge Rejects Cap on Awards in Ferry Crash

From the NY Times:

Judge Rejects Cap on Awards in Ferry Crash By ANDY NEWMAN February 27, 2007

A federal judge yesterday rejected New York City’s attempt to use an obscure 19th-century maritime law to cap its liability in the 2003 crash of a Staten Island ferry at $14 million.

The ruling exposes the city to tens of millions of dollars in potential damage awards to relatives of those killed and to scores of people injured when the ferry, the Andrew J. Barberi, crashed into a maintenance pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island.

The city had argued that the accident was covered by an 1851 act, aimed at encouraging investment in the shipbuilding industry, that limited a boat owner’s liability to the value of the boat minus the repair costs — in this case $14.4 million. The judge ruled, however, that the 1851 law did not apply if the city’s managers had been negligent, and he found that they had been.(keep reading)

Posted at 4:38 PM, Feb 27, 2007 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)