Tag: lawsuit

$500,000 for damages caused by MV CLIPPER ADVENTURER The Canadian Coast Guard is seeking almost half a million dollars in damages from the cruise ship MV Clipper Adventurer and its owners.The coast guard, through the federal government, launched a lawsuit on Friday.The ship ran aground near Kugluktuk, Nunavut, in August 2010 after hitting an uncharted rock shelf. The Coast Guard's Amundsen ship had to rescue the 128 passengers after the Clipper Adventurer's crew was unable to dislodge the vessel.The lawsuit says the damages are to prevent, repair or minimize pollution from the ship's grounding. The Coast Guard said that when the ship was grounded, 13 tanks aboard were breached. Some of those tanks held fuel, freshwater and sludge.Another Coast Guard ship, the Sir Wilfrid Laurier, was sent to the site to monitor the salvaging of the ship and the potential pollution from the accident.The lawsuit claims the rock shelf was a known hazard to mariners since September 2007.The owners of the Clipper Adventurer filed a lawsuit against the federal government last spring saying they should have been given more information about the hazard.Source: CBC

Company sent them into pirate-infested waters without adequate security Two seamen claim in Federal Court that Somali pirates held them hostage for eight months after their employers sent them into pirate-infested waters without adequate security.Bahri Chirag and Dangwal Sandeep sued Marida Tankers, Heidmar Inc., MT Marida Marguerite Schifffahrts and XYZ Ship Owner / Ship Employer on six claims, including negligence, unseaworthiness, and emotional distress. The men were second assistant engineers on the Marida Marguerite tanker, which is owned and managed by Marida Tankers and Heidmar."On or about May 8, 2010, the subject vessel was in the Gulf of Arden en route from Kandla, Gujarat to Antwerp, Belgium when Somali pirates hijacked the subject vessel," the complaint states.Chirag and Sandeep say they endured eight months of physical, mental abuse and torture while the owners of the ship negotiated for their release. The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 requires owners and operators of "vessels and facilities that the Secretary believes may be involved in a transportation security incident" to prepare a security plan "for deterring a transportation incident to the maximum practicable," the complaint states.But Chirag and Sandeep say the defendants failed to submit a security plan for normal scenarios, and ...

BP has subpoenaed the private emails of scientists who studied the Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe, stoking fears of misinformation campaigns and researcher intimidation.The situation "should concern all those who value the principles of academic freedom and responsibility, and believe these principles to be essential to the integrity of the deliberative scientific process," wrote Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute president Susan Avery and research director Laurence Madin in a statement released June 3.On the same day, WHOI oceanographers Christopher Reddy and Richard Camilli announced in a Boston Globe commentary that they'd given to BP 3,000 confidential emails requested by the company in December 2011.BP hopes the emails will help in its ongoing legal battle over the exact volume of oil released by the blown-out Macondo wellhead in the spring and summer of 2010. The volume will determine BP's financial liabilities, and Reddy and Camilli led the WHOI research team that calculated the now-accepted estimate of 4.9 million barrels.Reddy and Camilli had already released "more than 50,000 pages of documents, raw data, reports, and algorithms used in our research - everything BP would need to analyze and confirm our findings," they wrote in the Globe. "But BP still demanded access to our private ...

Lawsuit against the owner and operator of Maersk Alabama More than half of the crew aboard the Maersk Alabama during a Somali pirate attack in April 2009 have filed lawsuits in Norfolk against the owner and operator of the ship, even as a new movie about the hijacking is in the works.The film, starring Tom Hanks and tentatively scheduled for release in March, will tell the story of Capt. Richard Phillips, who offered himself as a hostage to the pirates in exchange for the freedom of his crew and the container ship.The five-day saga off the coast of Somalia ended when Navy SEALs killed three of Phillips' captors in a volley of rifle fire.A fourth pirate had previously surrendered to the Navy.Though Phillips was hailed as a hero, 11 former crew members allege in lawsuits filed in Norfolk Circuit Court and in Mobile, Ala., that his employers, through Phillips' actions, put them in grave danger when the ship sailed within about 250 miles of the Somalian coast despite warnings to stay at least 600 miles out because of pirate activity.Together, the suits seek nearly $50 million in damages from Norfolk-based Maersk Line Ltd., the owner of the ship, and Alabama-based ...

Their captain ignored warnings to sail clear of pirate-infested waters off Africa More than half the crew members of a container ship that was at the center of a piracy drama off Somalia in April 2009 are suing for nearly $50 million, contending their captain ignored warnings to sail clear of pirate-infested waters off Africa.The lawsuits have been filed by 11 crew members aboard the Maersk Alabama, a Norfolk-based ship, the Virginian-Pilot (http://bit.ly/JsIQoz) reported Saturday. The five-day standoff ended when Navy SEALs killed three of Capt. Richard Phillips' captors.While Phillips was hailed as a hero, his former crew members allege his actions put them in grave danger when the ship sailed within about 250 miles of the African coast despite warnings to stay at least 600 miles offshore because of the threat of piracy.Phillips is not named in the lawsuits, filed in courts in Norfolk and Mobile, Ala. The newspaper said it could not reach him for comment, and The Associated Press could not immediately locate a phone number for him.Named in the suits are the owner of the ship, Maersk Line Ltd., and Waterman Steamship Corp. The Alabama company operated and provided the crew for the ship under a ...

18-year-old survived 28 days adrift but his two crewmates died after their boat was ignored A Panamanian man who watched his two companions die while surviving adrift at sea for 28 days in their small boat has sued a US cruise line because one of its ships failed to help, his attorney said on Sunday.Attorney Edna Ramos said the lawsuit alleging negligence by Princess Cruise Lines was filed in a Florida state court on behalf of Adrian Vazquez.The 18-year-old and his companions - Fernando Osorio, 16, and Elvis Oropeza, 31 - set off for a night of fishing on 24 February from Rio Hato, a small fishing and farming town on Panama's Pacific coast. The boat's motor broke down on the way back and the men drifted at sea for 16 days before seeing a cruise ship approach on 10 March.Vazquez has said the men signalled for help, but the ship did not stop.Princess Cruises has said passengers never told the ship's captain they saw a boat.Osorio and Oropeza died later. Vazquez was rescued on 22 March near Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, more than 600 miles from where they had set out.Ramos said the lawsuit includes testimony from two cruise ship ...

Lawsuit on behalf of four on-board musician victims of the Costa Concordia shipwreck Attorneys file a lawsuit on behalf of four on-board musician victims of the Costa Concordia shipwreckA $US200 million ($A199.45 million) lawsuit has been filed in New York federal court on behalf of four Hungarian musicians and dancers aboard the Costa Concordia cruise ship that capsized off the coast of Italy in January, reports Sky News Australia.The lawsuit filed says the ensemble lost one of their members during the accident. Violinist Sandor Feher drowned while trying to help children put on life jackets.The lawsuit says the performers are unable to work after suffering physical and emotional injuries.Another lawsuit filed in Miami is seeking more than $US500 million in damages on behalf of dozens of plaintiffs.Source: MarineLink

They say dispensed drugs to the pilot of the Cosco Busan The owners and operators of a container ship that slammed into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2007 and spilled thousands of gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay have sued the Northern California pharmacists they claim negligently dispensed prescription drugs to the pilot of the Cosco Busan.The ship's owner, Regal Stone Ltd., and operator Fleet Management Ltd. Alleged in court papers filed in San Francisco Superior Court Friday that the pills "recklessly" provided by pharmacists at a Longs drug store in Petaluma, Calif. had so clouded pilot John Cota's judgment and dulled his reflexes that they led to the crash.The container ship spilled more than 50,000 gallons of oil into the bay after it collided with a bridge tower. The fuel traveled to beaches north and south of San Francisco, and biologists have blamed the spill for the deaths of more than 2,400 birds.Michael DeAngelis, a spokesman for Rhode Island-based CVS Caremark, which owns Longs, said Wednesday that the company thinks Longs has no liability in the accident and plans to fight the lawsuit.Last year, Regal Stone and Fleet Management agreed to pay $4.4 million in damages to ...

Crew claims that Maersk ignored the piracy warning for Maersk Alabama Eleven employees claim in court that Maersk Line ignored warnings about Somali pirates and sailed too close to the Somali coast, where pirates kidnapped the crew.The eleven crewmembers sued Maersk Line and Waterman Steamship Corp., in three complaints in Mobile County Court.They claim they were aboard the Maersk Alabama, a container vessel owned by Maersk and Waterman, with a crew of 20, when on April 6, 2009, the defendants received warning to sail at least 600 miles off the coast of Somalia, to avoid pirates who were attacking ships in the area.But the men say Maersk and Waterman ignored the warnings and sent their ship within 250 miles of the Somali coast.Somali pirates attacked and boarded the Maersk Alabama on April 8, took several crewmembers hostage and caused them permanent physical and emotional injuries, according to the identical complaints.Four pirates seized the ship 240 nautical miles southeast of the Somali port of Eyl. U.S. troops rescued the captain and several crewmembers on April 12, after a 3-day stand-off.The men say Maersk and Waterman sacrificed their employees' safety for financial gain."Defendants knowingly, intentionally and willfully sent their employees, including plaintiffs, ...

New lawsuit re an oil leak discovered on March 4 in Chevron's offshore Frade field A Brazilian federal prosecutor on Tuesday launched his second 20 billion real ($10.9 billion) lawsuit against U.S. oil company Chevron and driller Transocean, doubling the stakes against the companies as critics call him as overzealous.The new lawsuit, the prosecutor's second civil case against the companies in less than five months, is related to an oil leak discovered on March 4 in Chevron's offshore Frade field northeast of Rio de Janeiro, the Federal Public Prosecutor's office said in an email.The new lawsuit, filed in federal court in Campos, north of Rio de Janeiro, also seeks to prevent Chevron and Transocean from operating in Brazil, transferring Brazilian profits overseas, obtaining government-backed finance and moving equipment from the country, the statement said."The second leak is as serious or more serious than the first, so the damages have to be in the same category," Santos de Oliveira told Reuters. "While they are not a simple mathematical calculation, they are not symbolic either."Chevron and Transocean's activities may have damaged the Frade reservoir, making it impossible to produce from the field, denying Brazil its right to royalties on a public resource, ...