The owners of the California diving boat that burned during a Labor Day weekend charter near Santa Barbara, killing 34 people aboard, have turned to a 19th century maritime law to argue they should not have to pay any money to the families of victims.
In their petition filed Thursday, attorneys for the owners Truth Aquatics Inc., Glen Fritzler and his wife, Dana, cite an 1851 statute in asking a judge to eliminate their financial liability or lower it to an amount equal to the post-fire value of the boat, or $0.
The Conception ignited early on Sept. 2, burned for hours and sank near the Channel Islands. It is now worthless, according to the Fritzlers’ federal court filing in the Central District of California.
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The burned hulk of the Conception is brought to the surface by a salvage team off Santa Cruz Island. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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The burned hulk of the Conception is brought to the surface by a salvage team off Santa Cruz Island. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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A mourner pays her respects at a memorial made up of scuba tanks, one for each victim, during the vigil at Chase Palm Park on Friday night. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners gather for a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening honoring the victims of the Conception boat fire that broke out off Santa Cruz Island before dawn Monday and claimed 34 lives. (Luis Sinco)
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Glen Fritzler, left, co-owner of Truth Aquatics and the dive boat Conception, consoles an attendee during a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
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Scuba diver Julia Donath joins mourners for a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening to honor the 34 victims that died in the Conception boat fire. (Luis Sinco)
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Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, with other officials, presents a wreath during the vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening homor the 34 victims of the Conception boat fire. (Luis Sinco)
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Mourners gather for a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening honoring the victims of the Conception boat fire that broke out off Santa Cruz Island before dawn Monday and claimed 34 lives. (Luis Sinco)
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Some of the thousands of people join a vigil on the beach in honor of those who lost their lives in the Conception boat fire along the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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Allison Metchikof, left and Rachel Levi, right, embrace during a vigil hosted by Deep Blue Scuba Center in honor of the victims aboard the dive ship Conception in Long Beach. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
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Divers and support crews from many agencies work the scene of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County)
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The derrick barge Salta Verde off the coast of Santa Cruz Island upon its arrival late Wednesday at the scene of the wreck of the dive boat Conception. (U.S. Coast Guard)
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The search area where divers were looking through the sunken wreckage of the Conception is outlined. (KABC-TV)
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Divers and support crews from many agencies work the scene of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County)
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The owners of Truth Aquatics and the dive boat Conception, Glen and Dana Fritzler, right, and their daughter Ashley, left, during an interview in Santa Barbara, Calif. (KEYT-TV)
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Surfer Tim DeVries of Santa Barbara views the “Lost at Sea Memorial” at the end of the Santa Barbara Harbor jetty Thursday morning. The memorial reads “In memory of our loved ones whose lives and destinies have been claimed by the sea.” (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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Members of the FBI dive team view a growing memorial prior to departing Thursday morning to the site of the dive boat tragedy. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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People pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in Santa Barbara for victims of the deadly dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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CJ Andelman, 12, of Santa Barbara, who has become a scuba diver along with her twin sister, plays her harp Wednesday morning during the memorial at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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Jennifer Homendy, center, of the National Transportation Safety Board, with other NTSB and Coast Guard officials on Santa Barbara Harbor aboard Vision, the sister ship to Conception. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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Santa Barbara resident Britany Martin lets her son Theo, 2, place flowers at a growing memorial to the fire victims at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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FBI dive team members prepare to leave Santa Barbara Harbor on Wednesday morning and head to the site of the fire. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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A memorial is growing at Santa Barbara Harbor, where the dive boat Conception was based. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Olivia, left, sister of a female crew member thought to have died in the boat fire, hugs Jennifer Stafford, who placed flowers at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Search and rescue personnel remove one of more than a dozen body bags in Santa Barbara Harbor after the Conception diving boat caught fire early Monday. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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After hanging a dive flag in memory of the victims, JJ Lambert, 38, who said he had dived off the Conception as a kid, is hugged by Jenna Marsala, 33, at Santa Barbara Harbor near where the Conception departed. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Orlando Aldana places candles, one for each person aboard the Conception, at a makeshift memorial at Sea Landing in the Santa Barbara Harbor. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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At Santa Barbara Harbor, James Miranda kneels in prayer. “It’s a very sad moment for California,” he said. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Rescuers and law enforcement, on a boat docked at Santa Barbara Harbor, move a body that was recovered after Monday’s deadly boat fire. (Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press)
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The body of a victim is moved at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press)
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U.S. Coast Guard searches for victims of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island on Monday afternoon. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times )
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Dive boat captain Jerry Boylan is brought back to U.S. Coast Guard headquarters at Channel Islands Harbor on Monday in Oxnard. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters arrive back at the U.S. Coast Guard Station after battling the fire. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
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The captain of the Grape Escape boat, which rescued survivors of a boat fire off the Channel Islands, looks on near the U.S. Coast Guard Station Channel Islands in Oxnard on Monday. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
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Firefighters battle a blaze on a dive boat near Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County Fire Department)
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A diving boat fire near Santa Cruz Island off the Ventura County coast. (Santa Barbara County Fire Department)
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The dive boat Conception is engulfed in flames after a deadly fire broke out aboard the vessel off the Southern California Coast. (Santa Barbara County)
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The dive boat Conception seen at dawn Monday burns off Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County Fire)
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Conception, the boat that caught fire off Ventura County. (Truth Aquatics)
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Russell Brown, an attorney representing Truth Aquatics and the Fritzlers, declined comment.
The legal motion comes as diving teams are still looking for the 34th body and investigators are interviewing surviving crew members about the deadly voyage.
Robert J. Mongeluzzi, a Philadelphia-based maritime attorney who often represents families of people who died in duck boat incidents, said the petition by Conception’s owners was a predictable, if callous tactic for a vessel operator facing crippling legal payouts.
“It is pretty heartless when not all the bodies have been recovered to file something saying their lives are worthless,” Mongeluzzi said.
In a statement posted Friday morning on the Truth Aquatics’ Instagram page, the company said the legal step was “another unfortunate side of these tragedies.””When something like this happens, insurance companies and numerous stakeholders convene and activate a legal checklist. The timing is on them. Our hearts and minds are on the tragedy and finding answers.”
None of the victims’ relatives have sued the Fritzlers or Truth Aquatics, but in court filings, the owners say they’ve received notice for legal claims.
Law firms are also reaching out to victims’ families. At a makeshift memorial this week in Santa Barbara harbor, an administrator at a personal injury law firm approached Steve Quitasol, the brother of a man who died in the fire with his three daughters and their stepmother. Laura Rosales told Quitasol that three families of victims had retained the law firm, and she urged him to meet with her.
“It’s not about saying that the staff or crew was wrong, it’s about [safety] protocols,” Rosales told him at the memorial. “It’s about the insurance company that insured the Conception.”
Legal experts said the owners of the Conception effectively won their first victory in the post-fire litigation by filing the petition before victims initiated court actions.
Daniel Rose, a veteran New York-based maritime attorney, said if victims had filed lawsuits first in state courts, they could be eligible for significant damages. By filing the petition, Conception owners could be able to direct any future lawsuit to federal court and prevent substantial payouts.
“It brings all the claims into one court,” added Michael Karcher, a professor of maritime law at the University of Miami. He emphasized that the petition still faced hurdles and that it was not absolute.
To win, the Fritzlers will have to show in court that their company was not to blame for the inferno. Lawyers for the victims’ families will presumably challenge the effort but will be required to show that the owners knew or should have known of the risk of harm.
The law, the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, has been used routinely by ship operators, including the owner of the Titanic. In recent years, it has been invoked by the owners in the Deep Water Horizon oil rig disaster, the sinking of the El Faro cargo ship in 2015 and duck boat deaths such as the 2018 sinking in Missouri that killed 17.
Rose called it a “distasteful old law” that traces to the days when the shipping industry could not obtain insurance. Now, it is those insurers — not the boat owner or operator — who push for such a strategy, since they may bankroll the defense.
“It is certainly a tactic, but shipping owners aren’t bluffing; it is the law,” he added.
