After a three-week trial, a jury in Rabun County, Georgia, reached a $200 million verdict for the parents of a 7-year-old boy who died in a boating accident there in 2014. It was the largest verdict for pain and suffering ever in the state.
In July, 2014, Stephen and Margaret Batchelder, from Lake Worth, Florida, took their family on a vacation to Rabun County, in northeast Georgia. They rented a 2000 Malibu Response IX open-bow ski boat for a family outing on Lake Burton.
The boat was going from 5 to 7 mph with four children in the bow when the bow swamped, and Ryan Batchelder was thrown overboard. Dennis Ficarra, of Seneca, South Carolina, who was driving, did not see Ryan in the water, and he put the boat in reverse to keep it from sinking.
The prop hit Ryan, and he died as a result of drowning and extensive loss of blood from his injuries. Stephen Batchelder said, “My other son, he was 9 at the time, he was screaming, ‘My brother’s dead! My brother’s dead!’”
The family filed a civil product liability against Malibu in May, 2016. The suit said the boat was not properly weighted, causing the bow to dip underwater. The suit claimed that Malibu’s own employees had experienced water coming over the bow in that model.
Malibu had created the boat by cutting a hole in the forward deck of a closed-bow model and adding seats. The jury determined that the weight of the children forward decreased the boat’s freeboard and made it dangerous and susceptible to swamping.
In addition, the “playpen” bow seat design trapped water flowing over the bow, holding the bow down further and increasing the possibility of swamping. The jury also found that Malibu failed to warn users of a safety hazard in the boat.
Don Fountain, a lawyer for the family, said “the jury sent a very loud and clear message to Malibu and the entire boating industry that manufacturers who have actual knowledge of life-threatening safety hazards and intentionally fail to warn and withhold information of dangerous conditions will be held accountable.”
The company’s lawyer said it is reviewing the case and has not yet decided whether to appeal. Read more:
