Titan submersible.Photo:EyePress News/Shutterstock
EyePress News/Shutterstock
The families of thefive passengers who died in the ‘Titan’ submersible implosioncould still sue OceanGate despite the waivers they signed beforehand, according to a legal expert.
On Thursday, days after a Titanic-bound submersible disappeared on Sunday, OceanGateannounced the deaths of theTitan’s five passengers. Now, assafety concernsabout the vessel as well as questions about potential legal action are raised, much has been made about the waivers passengers signed before boarding.
According to CBS journalistDavid Pogue— who spoke with PEOPLE one day before the debris from the vessel was discovered — he was required to sign a waiver before his dive on theTitanlast summer, which he said was “quite clear about all the ways that you could be permanently disabled, emotionally traumatized or killed.”
On Friday,TMZ reportedthat a copy of the waiver used last summer allegedly required passengers to “assume full responsibility for all risks of property damage, injury, disability, and death.”
OceanGate did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
However, trial lawyer and former federal prosecutorNeama Rahmanitold PEOPLE on Thursday that a waiver doesn’t protect OceanGate from all types of legal action in light of the passengers' deaths.
“You can only waive a simple negligence," Rahmani said. “By law, you can’t waive gross negligence. So this is above and beyond, you know. So, whatever waiver they signed … You can waive known risks, but you can’t waive something more than that, which again, I’m certainly no expert in these types of vessels, but this seems like something more than simple negligence.”
Rahmani said he believed a civil lawsuit is “100 percent certain.”
“The civil lawsuit is pretty much absolute certainty,” he added, going on to note thatcriminal liability is a “bigger question” — but that given the profile of the passengers he “wouldn’t be surprised if there was a criminal prosecution of people who were responsible for this.”
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“This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss,” the statement read.
The passengers on the vessel were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Pakistani businessmanShahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood,TitanicexpertPaul-Henri Nargeoletand British billionaireHamish Harding.
source: people.com
