Lambert Zainey Smith & Soso was appointed to serve as co-lead counsel by U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo in the Limitation of Liability litigation regarding the Lift Boat Seacor Power, which capsized in the Gulf of Mexico just south of Port Fourchon on April 13, 2021. We represented the collective interests of the families of the deceased and survivors. Individually, our firm represented the widow of the captain who died in that catastrophe, along with 13 others, of the 19 souls on board of the L/B Seacor Power.
Following the U.S. Coast Guard hearing held in Houma, Louisiana, and intensive discovery, including many depositions held in New Orleans, we were able to resolve all of the claims in that complex matter by grouping categories of claims based on their legal posture in the proceedings. For example, since all the Jones Act Death claims shared a common basis for recovery and damages and had specific identifiable employer/owner/insurer interest, we were able to, with the cooperative efforts of their individual plaintiff’s attorneys, rank them economically relative to each other. We were then able to offer not only resolution of those individual claims but also groups of claims. With the help of the Court, this greatly streamlined the process and path to resolution for all parties to the litigation.
That efficiency led to the significant resolution of the matter regarding the Jones Act Death claims in late April of 2022, just over one year following the capsize and sinking.
The remaining claims, which included survivor and DOHSA (Death on the High Seas Act) claims, were a bit more complicated regarding parties, personal injury damages and some more diverse insurers interests, which required some additional time to resolve. In summary, there were (7) Jones Act Death claims, (6) DOSHA claims and (6) survivor claims all of which were concluded by November of 2023. *
*There were (2) group resolution settlements for prefrail SARS and vessel manufacturing/design claims which were resolved in lump sums with group party equal division damage distributions of a nuisance value nature.