Personal Injury Law

Fallen Sailor?s Mother Wins Wrongful Death Suit, But Who Will Pay?

By Michael

A New Jersey woman was recently awarded $1.2 million in a wrongful death lawsuit after her son was killed in a Navy training accident. However, despite winning the lawsuit, Cassita Massiah does not yet know who is responsible for making the payment.

Massiah filed the personal injury lawsuit after the tragic death of her son, Freddie Porter Jr., who was only 19 when the accident occurred.

According to the Rapid City Journal, Porter?s small inflatable raft was participating in a nighttime training exercise on Virginia?s James River when a flotilla of barges pushed by a tugboat appeared out of nowhere and struck the raft.

Two other seamen aboard the raft survived the impact, but Porter died when he was thrown overboard and became trapped underneath a barge. Sources indicate that no watchmen were surveying the river from atop the barge.

According to reports, the tugboat company claimed that the Navy was negligent in sending poorly trained sailors onto the river in an inadequate vessel. In response, the Navy contended that the barges should have had lookouts to spot smaller watercraft in the flotilla?s path.

At trial, U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan found the Navy 80 percent negligent in Porter?s death. However, Judge Morgan ordered the owner of the tugboat to pay the total amount of damages, despite the court?s finding that the tugboat company was only 20 percent liable for the accident.

This bizarre outcome is a result of a legal precedent known as sovereign immunity, which protects the government from lawsuits by military personnel injured or killed in the line of duty.

The tugboat company?s attorney has appealed the decision, claiming that two parties sharing negligence in an accident typically share payment for damages. The company will likely argue that sovereign immunity should not free the government from financial responsibility for the negligent death of service members, especially when the government?s agents are primarily at fault.

If the decision is reversed, it could have a lasting effect on future lawsuits filed by military personnel.

After the trial, Massiah criticized the Navy?s initial conclusion that her son?s death was ?just a plain accident.? She expressed gratitude for receiving her day in court, saying ?if I hadn?t pursued this procedure, I wouldn?t have known exactly what took place.?

After Porter?s accident, the Navy conducted a review of all its training exercise and has now stopped similar exercises on the James River.

While Cassita Massiah can gain some comfort knowing that future members of the Navy will not face the same risks as her son, it may be years before she knows which party will ultimately be held responsible for the tragic accident.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on June 03, 2010 (boomark / email).