A jury has found three former Utopia IV crewmembers deserve compensation for injuries and lost wages following a 2021 collision. One of the crewmembers is to receive further compensation for injuries resulting from other incidents onboard, too.
Eric Ward, Fred Wennberg, and Samuel Parrott alleged the owner failed to provide benefits, medical care, and unearned wages. This, after Utopia IV collided with a tanker in December 2021. (The National Transportation Safety Board later concluded that the crash occurred due to a lack of proper lookout.) The three plaintiffs were, respectively, the electro-technical officer, the chief engineer, and a deckhand. They also alleged Jones Act negligence against the owner. Jones Act negligence means an employer fails to maintain a safe working environment, and injury results. The owner addictionally faced an allegation of unseaworthiness, related to captain and crew training and behavior. Maritime law defines unseaworthiness as conditions leading to an unsafe environment.
The owner is Utopia Yachting, a company established by e-commerce entrepreneurs Loren Ridinger and her late husband, JD Ridinger. They commissioned the 206-footer (63-meter) at Rossinavi, taking delivery in 2018. Notably, before the trial, Utopia Yachting had admitted legal responsibility for the collision. However, it claimed the crew had received full legally owed compensation.
The jury disagreed. It found all three former Utopia IV crewmembers should receive additional funds connected to their employment contracts with Utopia Yachting. Specifically, Ward and Parrott are owed actual wages and medical costs. The jury also awarded punitive damages for mental trauma and the owner’s “willful delay” in providing wages and medical cost coverage. Wennberg is also entitled to unpaid medical expenses. Furthermore, Utopia Yachting should pay punitive damages for “willful failure” to cover his medical expenses. It must also pay for his future medical costs, past lost wage-earning capability, and mental trauma. Ward was awarded about $800,000, while Parrott was awarded nearly $600,000.
Wennberg sued for injuries resulting from four other separate incidents, too. A battery exploded, for instance, causing hearing loss and smoke-inhalation poisoning. Yet another incident involved a fall through an open engine-room floor section. A crewmember had removed a plate without his knowledge. The two remaining incidents pertained to a metal plate falling on him in the tender garage, and a protruding toolbox drawer railing. This railing sustained collision-related damage but remained unrepaired.
The jury found Wennberg had already received full wages in each situation, plus medical care coverage for three of the four. The exception was medical expenses from the battery explosion. Jurors added “willful failure” by the owner to cover these as well. Finally, the jury agreed with Wennberg’s claims that Utopia Yachting was negligent and responsible for unsafe working conditions. For this, it awarded him past wage-earning capacity and future medical costs coverage. The totals come to about $1.5 million.
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