Maritime Expert Witness Services - Services - Product Liability
Extensive Experience
Fisher Maritime has extensive experience in analyzing and preventing maritime-related product liability. Our work has involved both plaintiffs and defendants, small and large vessels, and has included the organization of seminars and the development of a book on the topic.
This work has involved small and large craft, manufactured components, the offshore industry, LNG vessels, shipyards, and many others. Since our expertise ranges from analytical ship design through ship construction management and into marine operations of various marine craft, we bring many perspectives to our analyses. Further, we have a reputation for both performing accurate analysis and giving effective presentations.
We have assisted many clients, both defendants and plaintiffs, in matters of maritime product liability. We were the sole technical consultants in a manufacturing defendant's case which went all the way to the US Supreme Court successfully. Fisher Maritime has learned a great deal from these past assignments and can pass our insights and "education" on to others seeking to avoid or deal with allegations of maritime product liability.
Sample Assignments
Fisher Maritime's client, a propulsion machinery manufacturer, was faced with a $12 million claim by a ship owner. The product liability claim was for damages, costs and loss of charter-hire for four ships allegedly arising from product defects and negligence by our client in manufacturing and supervising the shipyard installation of major equipment. Fisher Maritime's analysis included a complete review of shipyard installation and testing quality control procedures. Fisher Maritime showed that the nature of the failure would have been subject to the original warranty (i.e., a contract matter), but the warranty had expired by the time of the casualty. It was not a product liability issue, but was a contract issue, since no damage occurred to anything other than the product itself. The client was fully exonerated by District and Appellate courts. Because of differing Appellate decisions elsewhere, the US Supreme Court heard the case, and upheld the lower court's ruling.
A vessel sank with significant loss of life during a severe storm off the east coast of the US. Underwater photographs showed a stove-in forward hatch cover and the ship's forward structure torn asunder. The hatch cover had been inspected by the manufacturer a few months earlier and had been accepted for the Load Line Certificate at the same time. The ship had been a conversion, with a new midbody between old bow and stern sections. The National Transportation Safety Board and the US Coast Guard convened hearings, with the hatch cover manufacturer in the "hot seat." Fisher Maritime provided technical representation for the manufacturer at the hearings. It was postulated by the ship owner that the ship sank due to failure of the hatch cover, and then the other structural failures occurred when the hull struck the seabed. Fisher Maritime pointed out to the Board that the forward hatch was, in fact, forward of the collision bulkhead, so any flooding of that hatch would not have sunk the ship. Fisher Maritime also showed that an alternate theory of damage from a loose anchor was inconsistent with the events prior to the casualty. Fisher Maritime recommended...See More