Conception dive boat owner facing lawsuit, adding to history of alleged negligence

A crew member who survived the Conception dive boat fire but was severely injured has sued the vessel’s owner, alleging unseaworthiness and negligence. 

Ryan Sims, a steward on the Conception, filed the suit Sept. 12 in Ventura County Superior Court. He broke his leg in three places and injured his back and neck while escaping the Sept. 2 fire as the boat was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, according to the complaint. 

Worldwide Diving Adventures, the company that had chartered the Conception for a Labor Day weekend diving trip, is also named in the lawsuit. Many of the allegations, however, are against Santa Barbara-based Truth Aquatics and its owner Glen Fritzler. 

Russell Brown, Fritzler’s attorney, could not immediately be reached for comment. The phone number for Worldwide Diving Adventures was disconnected, and company officials could not immediately be reached. It’s unclear if they have an attorney.

Sims is seeking monetary damages for the medical bills he’s incurred and the mental anguish, physical pain, emotional distress and loss of earnings he has suffered. It is likely these consequences will continue, the complaint states. 

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His attorney Kurt Arnold said Sims is out of the hospital now and in a wheelchair.

“He’s got extreme night terrors and PTSD,” said Arnold, co-founder of Houston-based law firm Arnold & Itkin. 

Before dawn on the day of the fire, Sims was asleep on the top deck of the boat, as required by his job parameters, when he was awoken by a loud noise. He heard a pop and a crackle and saw smoking moving into his room, Arnold said. Sims grabbed a fire extinguisher, but the smoke overwhelmed him, the attorney said.

“That’s when he heard the mayday,” Arnold said. 

Sims had to jump from the top deck to main deck, and the impact shattered his leg bones in three places. His back and neck also were hurt, Arnold said.

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He was afraid he couldn’t walk, let alone swim, but the flames were coming. He threw himself over the edge of the boat and into the ocean, Arnold said. Later, someone pulled him out of the water, saving his life, Arnold said.

Sims is one of five people, all crew members, to survive the fire. The other 34 aboard — one crew member and 33 diving enthusiasts — were trapped by the flames in a bunk area below deck.

The boat sank after the fire, ultimately resting upside-down on the ocean floor. 

The boat was salvaged last week and brought back to the mainland, where federal authorities will further investigate what happened.

How the boat owner seeks to limit liability

To thwart any potential civil actions, attorneys for Truth Aquatics, owner Glen Fritzler and his wife, Dana, took the “very aggressive and frankly inappropriate maneuver” of filing a petition to limit their liability, Arnold said.

The petition was filed in federal court about a week before Sims filed his lawsuit. In it, attorneys for Truth Aquatics contend the Conception was always in working order, including the time it left for its final trip. 

“The Conception, prior to and at the inception of the voyage, was tight, staunch and seaworthy and fit for the intended trip,” according to petition filed Sept. 5 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The fire aboard the Conception left the vessel’s value at $0. The petition asks the court to limit the company’s liability to the value of the boat, the petition states.

Arnold said the petition is relying on a “broken law” that no longer should be used. It cites the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, an “antiquated” law designed to protect owners of wooden ships in an era before radar, GPS and ship-to-shore communications. The law now protects insurance companies, Arnold said.

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It’s a strategy he has seen used before, Arnold said. His firm handles more maritime cases than any other in the country, he said. The liability tactic was used after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and his firm represented dozens of plaintiffs in that case. 

The way to overcome the liability petitions, Arnold said, is to show that the owner and the captain knew there were defects in the vessel.

The U.S. Coast Guard has said that a vessel of the Conception’s size was required to have one crew member stay awake and perform a roving watch of the boat. However, a preliminary report on the fire from the National Transportation Safety Board states all crew members were asleep when the blaze ignited.

“We find it hard to believe based upon what we know that the company had no knowledge that Conception failed to assign a night watchman and that the vessel was dangerously undermanned,” Arnold said in a statement. 

Sims was a steward, the “captain of the kitchen,” as Arnold put it, and was asleep during his “designated rest time” when he realized there was a fire, the attorney said.

As a steward, Sims had no supervisory authority and was not in a leadership position, Arnold said.

Later after the liability petition was filed, the court issued a restraining order preventing any other injured survivors or victims’ loved ones from filing a lawsuit, Arnold said.

Arnold and his team weren’t aware that restraining order had already gone into effect once Sims’ lawsuit had been filed. Sims’ legal team now needs to file an answer in federal court to the liability petition and argue to overturn it, Arnold said.

Should Sims and any other future plaintiffs be successful, the cases will be remanded to state court for jury trials, Arnold said. Any answers or claims in response to the company’s liability petition must be filed by July 1, 2020, Arnold said.

Truth Aquatics has faced previous legal problems

Sims’ lawsuit is not the first time Truth Aquatics has faced allegations of negligence and unseaworthiness over injuries aboard company vessels.

Several lawsuits were filed in Santa Barbara County Superior Court dating back to the 1980s.

The company was sued in June 2017 over injuries a kayak guide claimed he suffered while loading the equipment onto a company boat named Truth, according to the complaint. 

The guide, identified in court documents as Christopher Ragland, worked for Santa Barbara Adventure Co., which supplies such equipment to Truth Aquatics for sea excursions. In July 2015, Ragland was loading the kayaks onto an overhead rack when he fell into an open hatch leading to the engine room. He landed on his back. 

In the complaint, Ragland alleged the captain of the boat, identified as Davey Woodland, “negligently left open” the hatch and didn’t warn anyone about it. 

“This constituted a violation of industry safety standards and defendants’ own safety policies and procedures,” the complaint states. 

Attorneys for Truth Aquatics denied the man’s claims. There was an out-of-court settlement, according to court records, and a request to dismiss the case was filed in July 2018. 

The conditions of the settlement were unclear. 

Similar claims were presented in a case filed in March 2010 by Erin Chris Wilcox, identified as a seaman for boats owned and operated by Truth Aquatics. 

From court documents, it’s unclear which boat the incident happened on or what exactly happened leading to the seaman’s personal-injury claim. Wilcox’s complaint mentions a railing that was allegedly damaged or deteriorated. He contends Truth Aquatics failed to warn him about the railing or to fix it, documents show. 

Truth Aquatics again denied the claims. 

The case went to mediation and there was a request for dismissal filed in January 2011. 

Parents Walter Hunter and Katherine Hunter filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Truth Aquatics in November 1996. They alleged their son, Walter Hunter Jr., drowned and died on a diving expedition in the Channel Islands in November 1995 while on an excursion on the Truth.

The parents claimed the company and others negligently monitored and supervised the trip or the equipment. They contended their son died as a result of defective and unsafe products that were not properly inspected.

Truth Aquatics denied the allegations, saying the fatal injuries “resulted from a modification of the equipment that was not reasonably foreseeable,” court documents show.

The parties were open to negotiations and the lawsuit never went to trial. The details of a settlement are unclear, but the litigation was dismissed in 1997.

In February 1996, experienced diver Bart Tallakson named Truth Aquatics in a personal-injury claim for injuries suffered on a March 1995 trip aboard the company boat named Vision. The boat’s captain, Jerry Boylan, was also named as a defendant.

According to court documents, Vision had lost its primary anchor during the excursion and was using its secondary anchor. However, a salvage dive team including Tallakson was organized to try to find the lost anchor.

When Tallakson jumped into the water from the bow of the boat, he claimed he was under the impression the boat was going to remain turned off. But when he went into the water, the captain allegedly turned on the engine unbeknownst to him. As a result, Tallakson was sucked into the boat’s propellers, documents show.

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Boylan and Truth Aquatics denied the allegations, saying Tallakson failed to release all of the air from a buoyancy compensating device that would have made him sink when he hit the water. Furthermore, Tallakson had been diving with Truth Aquatics for several years and had previously signed waivers relieving the company of any liability.

The case was resolved with a confidential settlement in 1999.

In statements since the Conception fire, Fritzler has identified the captain of the boat at the time of the fire as Jerry Boylan. 

It’s unclear how Sari Perlstein was injured on a trip aboard Truth in December 1988, but Perlstein filed negligence and personal-injury claims against Truth Aquatics a year later. The complaint alleged the company hired an inexperienced skipper and the vessel was ill-equipped for heavy sea situations.

Truth Aquatics denied the allegations and the case was dismissed in 1990.