Scuba death results in a lawsuit?

[Greg_MacMaster]

You might try contacting one of the law school libraries in your area. I'm currently a law student and I know for a fact that our librarians help all sorts of people with legal research. They could at least point you in the right direction.

jerald,

Isn't there a way to search online where there's a collection of cases with keywords to search and find the bulk of the cases nationwide? Like maybe some internal link within the court system?

 

[jeraldjcook]

You can search cases online both through Westlaw and Lexis Nexis, however both are very expensive and require a subscription. I'm not sure about Michigan, but the Kansas court system does not have an online database that you can search. The Kansas Bar Associations offers something similar so I would bet the Michigan Bar Association does as well, but again need a membership. There's too much money to be made on this stuff to give it out for free, but you can get all the same info in paper form at a law library.

Your best approach would either be: 1) call your closest law school librarian; or 2) find a law student with free subscriptions to both systems (that would be me ) to do some searching for you.

Are you looking solely for cases in which the State has been liable, or buddies and dive operators as well?

 

[Greg_MacMaster]

You can search cases online both through Westlaw and Lexis Nexis, however both are very expensive and require a subscription. I'm not sure about Michigan, but the Kansas court system does not have an online database that you can search. The Kansas Bar Associations offers something similar so I would bet the Michigan Bar Association does as well, but again need a membership. There's too much money to be made on this stuff to give it out for free, but you can get all the same info in paper form at a law library.

Your best approach would either be: 1) call your closest law school librarian; or 2) find a law student with free subscriptions to both systems (that would be me ) to do some searching for you.

Are you looking solely for cases in which the State has been liable, or buddies and dive operators as well?

I'm mainly looking for cases that actually went to court (or settled out of court) showing that liability was an issue. This wouldn't count for an EMS screw up or the contaminated air...etc.- just diving a shipwreck placed on the seabed/bottomland and a death causing a lawsuit to be filed by the family. I can get a count of all the acidents/injuries from DAN, so it's now a matetr of pairing down the data and coming up with a ratio to total accidents.

All of you are very helpful and I thank you so much! Keep the ideas and thoughts coming!

 

[jeraldjcook]

I'm mainly looking for cases that actually went to court (or settled out of court) showing that liability was an issue.

I'll see what I can find. The ones that make it to trial aren't a problem, but I'm guessing these sorts of cases wouldn't make it that far. As for the ones settled out of court, you're probably out of luck, as there wouldn't be any record of those. The only exception would be a case where the plaintiff wins, the defendant appeals and loses, and then the case just disappears. It disappeared because the defendant settled.

I can get a count of all the acidents/injuries from DAN, so it's now a matetr of pairing down the data and coming up with a ratio to total accidents.

Again, I'll see what I can find but it is going to be impossible to get an accurate count on the number of lawsuits filed. The vast majority of cases, those of the lower courts, don't have published opinions so there would be nothing to search for. Your best argument isn't going to be the ratio of lawsuits filed to accidents, but the case law out there on the state's liability in that situation. I'll check Michigan state and federal case law, 6th Circuit Court decisions, and Michigan statutes. I highly doubt SCOTUS has ever heard anything, but I check it as well.

Edit: I'll try to have something concrete by Monday at the latest.

Edit round 2: I'll search the other circuits as well if I don't find anything on point in the 6th or state courts.

 

[Greg_MacMaster]

jerald,

You rock! I'd be curious with California's and Florida's case as they have quite a few intentional sinkings. Michigan only has....... ONE private sinking! Ours will be #2 in the past 20 years.

 

[jeraldjcook]

Working on the statutes now. Looks good for you so far:
>>324.76115. Scuba diving; acceptance of dangers

Sec. 76115. Each person who participates in the sport of scuba diving on the Great Lakes bottomlands accepts the dangers that adhere in that sport insofar as the dangers are obvious and necessary. Those dangers include, but are not limited to, injuries which can result from entanglements in sunken watercraft or aircraft; the condition of sunken watercraft or aircraft; the location of sunken watercraft or aircraft; the failure of the state to fund staff or programs at bottomlands preserves; and the depth of the objects and bottomlands within preserves.


I'll see what I can do about California and Florida as well, but I only have a couple of hours to put into this.

 

[Hoosier]

Based on my quick research, there is 14 cases about scuba death.

10-US District Court Cases
1-FL Courts of Appeal Cases
1-IL Court of Appeals Cases
1-OH Courts of Appeals Cases
1-Us Courts of Appeals Cases, Combined.

For example,

IL case:

Frayne v. Dacor Corp., No. 3-04-0860 , APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS, THIRD DISTRICT, 362 Ill. App. 3d 575; 840 N.E.2d 294; 2005 Ill. App. LEXIS 1173; 298 Ill. Dec. 524, November 29, 2005, Filed , Released for Publication December 30, 2005.

OH case:
State v. Scuba, CASE NO. 2006-G-2713 , COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO, ELEVENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT, GEAUGA COUNTY, 2006 Ohio 6203; 2006 Ohio App. LEXIS 6160, November 24, 2006, Decided , Discretionary appeal not allowed by State v. Scuba, 113 Ohio St. 3d 1441, 2007 Ohio 1266, 2007 Ohio LEXIS 738 (Ohio, Mar. 28, 2007)


I didn't read through each case though.

Good luck,


COB....

 

[jeraldjcook]

Frayne v. Dacor Corp., No. 3-04-0860 , APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS, THIRD DISTRICT, 362 Ill. App. 3d 575; 840 N.E.2d 294; 2005 Ill. App. LEXIS 1173; 298 Ill. Dec. 524, November 29, 2005, Filed , Released for Publication December 30, 2005.

This case is about a firefighter who died while doing dive training.

OH case:
State v. Scuba, CASE NO. 2006-G-2713 , COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO, ELEVENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT, GEAUGA COUNTY, 2006 Ohio 6203; 2006 Ohio App. LEXIS 6160, November 24, 2006, Decided , Discretionary appeal not allowed by State v. Scuba, 113 Ohio St. 3d 1441, 2007 Ohio 1266, 2007 Ohio LEXIS 738 (Ohio, Mar. 28, 2007)

This case is about Robert S. Scuba who was convicted of robbery.

I searched CA, FL, and MI state and federal cases, including circuits with various combinations of "scuba" and a modifier, including: wrecks, death, died, liab! (all words with the root liab, so it includes liability, liable, etc.), private, and a few others. Came back with nothing. Not a single case that involving your situation. Lots of cases suing dive operators, instructors, a couple of dive buddies, etc, but nothing on the liability of the organization that sunk a wreck. As a matter of fact, the few "scuba" and "wreck" results that were returned all had to do with salvage rights. I'll keep looking but I doubt I'll find anything.

CA and FL have "recreational use" statutes, but nothing scuba specific like MI.

 

[Greg_MacMaster]

Hello all,

Just returned from a county board of commissioners meeting and they did approve to buy the vessel from the federal govt. But the question as to liability was the hotest topic and I did read axactly what was law. It seems the MDEQ (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) has asserted a certain amount of responsibility well out of teh scope of their mission. They have no business in recreational development, assertion of liability or demand an economic development plan.

So with that said, the board agreed and approved the pilot project. No a compiliation of data (and I can' thank you enough for assisting here) we'll hopefully bring closure to this liability issue and move on to other things of importance (like where to dive next).

 

[Jeff Toorish]

I skipped through this thread a bit but there is a database of case law called Nexis-Lexis. It is somewhat expensive, but I'd bet there is a law firm somewhere in Michigan with a partner who is a diver.

Ask that law partner to run a Nexis-Lexis search of tort law with the obvious keywords and see what pops up. It would be as good a resource as any.

Incidentally, I don't believe this is a waste of time or tax dollars --it sounds like the state legislature is doing due diligence, which is what we pay them for.

Jeff