Seems like putting together a 200, high speed boat tournament, with a financial incentive on public water should carry some responsibility...especially when you profit from the event...just my opinion
Seems like putting together a 200, high speed boat tournament, with a financial incentive on public water should carry some responsibility...especially when you profit from the event...just my opinion
Usually the deepest pockets will have the heaviest burden for defense.Seems like putting together a 200, high speed boat tournament, with a financial incentive on public water should carry some responsibility...especially when you profit from the event...just my opinio
That's all good and well, but the victim's families don't talk to the JB134's of the fishing world to know what does or does not happen behind the scenes. Maybe in the discovery phase the plaintiffs realize MLF safety is airtight and they amend the lawsuit to remove them as a defendant. OR there was actually some negligence and they get a slap on the hand. How are the victims supposed to know? A pretty please letter to MLF?Originally Posted by rjvana37
Then again, imagine a tournament that involves 200 cars driving all over your town trying to accomplish a list of things by 3pm. Are contestants expected to obey all laws? Sure. Can the organizers make contestants sign a piece of paper that says drive safe? Sure. Now 3 kids get run over because the prize money encourages recklessness. Would this tragedy have happened if not for the incentives set up by the organizers? Did the organizers do everything in their power to prevent a tragedy from happening?
These aren't easy questions to answer even though people like to boil it down to individual responsibility. And while there may be no criminal liability by MLF, tort law may have something to say about what happened.
So.. wouldn't whatever party that regulates boating activity or permits these events on the lake also be creating a "foreseeable risk of injury and death" by not regulating speed or boating safety on the lake? I mean MLF's anglers would all have been operating inside of the state's rules and regulations while underway as far as anyone knows. It is highly possible that Flint could have been personally negligent, but doubt this gains much traction against the organization, though as stated above, insurance companies tend to settle these things for financial reasons. I do expect that some states could begin eying some increased regulation of their waterways.. they are getting more crowded and boats are not getting slower.
MLF response:
https://www.waff.com/2025/05/27/majo...-crash-victim/
I have never heard them even mention that . They say just be careful out there , if that .
Look guys , there are lots of moving parts here . Lots of speculation and opinions . There are things we dont know and may never know fully behind the scenes . Stay calm and let this thing play out . You need not worry about MLF . They have the most protection here .
Thanks. I feel better now.
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I hope the family of the innocent people killed win
Empathy is putting yourself in someone else shoes . What would you do ? . Nothing . A bass tournament pro angler just ran into a boat and killed some of your family . Now please tell me what would you do ? You are giving an opinion that MLF is not at fault here . How do you know . Are they 100 % not at fault or 50% not at fault or 0% not at fault . Alabama is a 1% negligence state . So if your in an accident and deemed just 1% contributory at fault . The other party is 99 % at fault . You get Nothing . So your opinion means absolutely nothing to the Law .
I was in college taking a law class required for my degree, Tort Law. The question posed to the class was "Who do you sue if you don't know who is 100% responsible for the harm caused to you?" The answer was "Everyone that could possibly be to blame." The reasoning the professor gave was because the burden of proof falls on the respondent to prove they did not cause the harm to you.. Therefore, make everyone prove that they did not harm you. Just the way she goes, sue everyone. Can't blame these folks for doing just that.
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The last two posts need to be read very slowly by some on here as they nailed this issue.
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Good friend of mine's 2 twin boys were killed in Tx by a sleeping semi driver. The boys were parked at a rest stop and the semi (sleeping driver) plowed through the boys' car killing both of them. The semi driver was an owner operator and couldn't come up with two nickels to rub together. Everyone got sued. The trucker, the truckers insurance, the shipper, the shippers insurance, the consignee, the consignees insurance, the contractor that maintained and ran the rest stop, etc. In this case, basically all defendants ended up settling the case for some non zero amount. Some small, some large. No amount was consolation for the loss of these boys to their family.
What stupidity. Should they sue his sunglasses company too? I mean maybe he wasn't able to see with 100% clarity. Or how about his sock company, maybe he had a itchy sock which caused him to look away. Its a shame people get convinced that lawsuit will make them feel better.
We all know the first rule of driving a bass boat is to never look at an itchy sock while driving. Probably good advice to follow while driving your truck too.
There's lots of decaffeinated brands that are just as tasty as the real thing.
Hi Mike.
I agree its pretty stupid. "Tort reform" used to be a big political need but it seems like no one talks about it anymore. Probably because most of congress are lawyers and if we had meaningful tort reform lawyerss would have less business.
Very true , plus his family didnt sign anything
The tournament operators created a situation where it benefits the participants to move between parts of the lake at high speed.
That is f'n messed up. How the hell was the shipper, consignee, and contractor running the rest stop responsible in any way? I can brainstorm some scenarios that the contractor running the rest stop could bear some responsibility if there were some contributing factors that were in fact their responsibility but the likelihood of that being the case is not very high. The operator/owner is clearly at fault.
Not much you can do other than make sure that a prosecutor pursues charges against the person who actually caused the deaths.
I can see filing a suit against that individual and/or whatever party covers his liability but then again what good does that do?
If a prosecutor failed to press charges against the guy that killed them I would probably be tempted to take things into my own hands to get retribution but would probably end up not doing anything for the obvious reasons even though I imagine I would be very tempted.
What I would not for damn sure do is implicate innocent parties.
The manufacturer of the boat is not at fault.
The proprietor of the launch ramp is not at fault.
The organization running the tournament is not at fault.
The other tournament participants are not at fault.
The guy who owns the shoreline nearest where the incident happened is not at fault.
I can go on and on and name every human on this planet and every organization on the planet..........guess what they are not at fault here.
Guess who is at fault? How about the guy that ran over and killed the victims.
I cannot believe how many want to go after innocent parties. No wonder so many innocent folks end up in prison.
I'm out I am not going to waste any more give a shit over this.
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Please list more.
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