Titanic sub victims families have 'no case for suing', says legal expert
The families of those who died on the OceanGate Titan submersible may not have any case if they decide to try and sue, according to one legal expert.
Five passengers were declared lost after a ‘catastrophic implosion’ is believed to have occurred, destroying the Titan.
OceanGate CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, and French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet were on board at the time the sub lost contact with the surface.
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It is believed that all the passengers – except Rush – will have signed extensive waivers alluding to the experimental nature of the craft, as well as signing away any responsibility from the company if a fatal incident happened.
Professor Richard Daynard of the Northeastern University School of Law told Fox News that the victims ‘knew the risk’ of what they were getting into and their families ‘should not successfully be able to sue’.
Safety concerns have been raised since the tragedy, as well as revelations from those who claim to have attempted to blow the whistle beforehand.
Daynard said that the lawsuit option would only be successful if the families could prove that there was fraud involved, or if they could show that Rush was acting recklessly.
"This was a best effort that somebody who actually knew a lot about what he was doing so that this was sufficiently safe, that he was willing to go in it himself and did, in fact, go in himself,” Daynard said.
"So I think it's very hard to say that the company behaved recklessly…when the CEO of the company was right down there with them."
CBS journalist David Pogue has claimed that he was shown a waiver before being allowed on the submersible that explained: "This experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death."
The Simpsons writer and producer Mike Reiss – who has also travelled on the Titan – explained that death was never too far away from the conversation when looking into travelling on the sub.
He said: "To get on the boat that takes you to the Titanic, you sign a massive waiver that you could die on the trip.
"On the list, they mention death three times on page one and it's never far from your mind.
“As I was getting on the submarine, this could be the end."
Daynard continued: "If they replicate this particular Titan capsule, it's not going to have a long line of people signing up to pay $250,000 to go on that at this point.
"So my guess is there's not a lot of…there's not going to be a lot of money there, even if they were to win.
"The way plaintiffs lawyers are paid is in the contingency fee, which means a fraction of the money that's recovered if the plaintiffs actually wins and recovers money from the defendant.
"If there's no money there, there's simply no reason to do it— it would be pointless a waste of professional time and money.”
Rob McCallum, a former consultant for OceanGate, has since claimed he did try to raise the alarm about the safety of the Titan, sending an email to Rush stating that it wouldn’t be safe until it was classified and inspected by an independent body.
The email read: "I think you are potentially placing yourself and your clients in a dangerous dynamic.”
Rush is believed to have rejected the concerns, writing: "We have heard the baseless cries of 'you are going to kill someone' way too often.”
McCallum persisted: "Until a sub is classed, tested and proven it should not be used for commercial deep dive operations.
"I implore you to take every care in your testing and sea trials and to be very, very conservative.
"As much as I appreciate entrepreneurship and innovation, you are potentially putting an entire industry at risk."
Topics: World News, Titanic
Tom Wood