"Bryan Maess filed the suit against Marlin Lee Larsen, accusing him of boating while distracted by his cell phone. But Larsen denies the allegations and told investigators he couldn’t see over the dash of his boat because he was sitting down. The 75-year-old uses a motorized scooter when he’s on land."
WTH was he operating a boat anyway?
I don't see the counterclaim to the accusation of being distracted by using your cellphone of that you couldn't see over the dash of your boat, to the point that you run over another craft that would have been obvious from several hundred yards out, to really help matters.
That's a bit like saying you weren't driving sleepy, you were driving drunk.
I don't know if a lawsuit is appropriate. It looks like the boating equivalent of a traffic accident.
Why wouldn't a lawsuit be appropriate? You know that lawsuits happen all the time with traffic accidents, right? They're just normally resolved by the insurance companies of the accused.
That said, insurance might work differently on the water, they, at a minimum, have their boat to replace and probably things like the cell phones they had on them when they went into the drink, as well as punitive damages against a guy operating a vessel recklessly. Plus, he has a nice big boat that might be a little scrapped up, but is still probably worth some money.