When a squall flipped the Lady D water taxi in 2004, killing five people and injuring many more, the pontoon boat had 25 people aboard - 10 more than there should have been - because of a Coast Guard mistake. The agency overestimated the capacity the boat could safely carry.
But it can't be held responsible.
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Coast Guard cannot be sued in the Inner Harbor tragedy because the inspection process it used fell under certain discretionary duties that are immune from legal blame. The decision confirms a lower court ruling made last year, after the boat's owners, operators and insurers collectively sued the Coast Guard.
"But for that mistake, the accident would not have occurred, and the vessel would have had sufficient stability to withstand the storm," said Robert Hopkins, an attorney for the Lady D affiliates, who sued to recoup money they paid to settle death and injury claims stemming from the accident.
The appellate ruling ends those efforts, unless the group - made up of Indemnity and Continental insurance companies, Baltimore Harbor Shuttle (doing business as Seaport Taxi), National Historic Seaport of Baltimore and Living Classrooms Foundation - decides to seek U.S. Supreme Court review.
It's the latest move in a lengthy, frustrating and perhaps futile blame game, trying to sort out the accident's contributing factors. The National Transportation Safety Board, too, has complained that the Coast Guard gauged boat capacity based on outdated weight statistics. And the Coast Guard has faulted the boat's captain for taking the Lady D out in questionable weather.
"There's no single cause. What happens is, you have a number of unsafe conditions laying dormant, waiting for the right occasion to manifest themselves in concert," said Brian Penoyer, deputy commander of the Coast Guard's Baltimore sector.
The Coast Guard's report on the incident is awaiting approval in Washington, the final stage in a case that Penoyer characterizes as the most significant in a dozen years. It led to a "sea change" in the way pontoon vessel stability will be measured, along with other proposed rule changes that could improve the safety of hundreds of thousands of boaters, he said.
Penoyer declined to discuss responsibility, leaving that for the courts to decide.
In rendering its opinion, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted that the Coast Guard inspector who certified the Lady D's safe capacity level had "inadvertently" used a procedure meant for another style of boat.
The accident took the lives of five people who were being shuttled from one tourist attraction to the next. Killed were 6-year-old Daniel Bentram of Harrisonburg, Va.; 26-year-old Andrew Roccella of Vienna, Va., and the woman he planned to propose to, Corinne Schillings, 26; and Joanne Pierce, 60, of Vineland, N.J. and her 34-year-old daughter, Lisa Pierce.
