Rebel Heart Crew Suing.....

[PamlicoTraveler]

I have a question for those who have followed this closely.....were all of their blog posts sent via the Sat phone? If they were, did the phone company cut them off on the day they called for help? I'm curious since they were doing lots of blogging underway. The timing of the cutoff is not clear to me.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

It's great to see other CF members using the word "dumbass" properly conjugated.

LOL

The only problem is that "dumbass" is a noun, and nouns aren't conjugated. In some languages, nouns will be declined, but not in English.

However, we can all decline to be dumbasses

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

LOL

The only problem is that "dumbass" is a noun, and nouns aren't conjugated. In some languages, nouns will be declined, but not in English.

However, we can all decline to be dumbasses

Unfortunately... not everyone can decline.

[Dauntlessny]

Thanks all for the entertainment.

If one needs any kind of phone, radio, etc that your life will depend on; stay home.

It's no different form weather and wx forecasts, I like em, I look at them, but i don't trust my life with em.

As a retrired weather forecaster myself, I plan based on the forecast, but execute based on what's actually happening, and seldom look at forecasts more than once a day, if that.

Yes, we like modern conveniences, but that's all they are.

One thing I learned from all of you sailors, Prepare for the Worst; Hope for the best.


That's what I'm doing now.

[Boatguy30]

It occurs to me this is entirely a blame game face saving measure.

You know how our failures these days have to have someone to blame, politics, economy, immigrants, etc.

It must be hard sitting there in SD one of the most beautiful climates in the world, as be so angry at life they need to lash out like this and get back in the spotlight.

You've gotta own your mistakes.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

SNIP

I repeat that we know only less than 1% of the facts

SNIP

(California is a notoriously bad jurisdiction for defendants in this kind of case)

SNIP

Do we even know if CA has jurisdiction?

Earlier I raised the question of RH's lawyer not seeming to have maritime training and wondered if the case would be in maritime courts.

Does anyone know where the sat phone provider is located, if one or more resellers are involved and where they are located, where Iridium is located, if RH's POB was in Mexico or the US and how all this affects jurisdiction.

While it is true many facts are unknown I feel comfortable saying jurisdiction will be an issue and I am not sure CA will claim jurisdiction.

[Greg4cocokai]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

If you go to sea. " expecting " long range comms to work and bail you out, you've no right to be there in the first place.

Eric's troubles were nothing to do with his communications equipment, and I personally tired of pussy footing around this issue. His issues were lack of experience, an ill prepared crew , poorly found vessel and essentially "biting off more then he could chew". There are no excuses or hidey holes for Eric. In my opinion he f#%k#d up!, happens to us all sooner or later. We just learn and move on.

Playing the media game , suing, the constant internet presence , says more about who he is as a person then anything to do with sailing.

Notwithstanding all that I wish him the best of luck. The world is not a nice place and he needs the sponduleeks.

Dave


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Well said Dave!

[sneuman]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

OK - For those who want "big business to pay."

Think about this. If Eric gets a judgment, and the government gets paid (although I haven't heard they are joining the suit - LOL) the "big business" isn't going to pay.

Anyone who subscribes to satphonestore.com service is going to pay. Through higher fees. That may mean you and me.

It's an inference on my part but in all probability, Eric did not have insurance covering loss of his boat.

A sat phone is not an insurance policy. If Eric wanted to insure his journey, he should have.

And, new clauses in the contract indemnifying the sat phone providers against any future suits.

My guess is that calling for the repayment of the rescue is a maximalist position - a meaningless bargaining chip that has the added benefit of making the plaintiffs look altruistic. What they are hoping to bargain down to is an out-of-court settlement for the value of the boat.

[chubby]

interesting thread on xerq...


cliff notes: rebel heart(faceman) is active in thread...and the crowd is not exactly as polite as here.
/maybe not SFW

[GordMay]

The Kaufman’s layer, Dan Gillion, is quoted as saying that they are suing “Whenever Communications, LLC”, who do business as SatellitePhoneStore.com, out of San Diego, California, and Sarasota, Florida.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by tomfl

Do we even know if CA has jurisdiction?

Earlier I raised the question of RH's lawyer not seeming to have maritime training and wondered if the case would be in maritime courts.

Does anyone know where the sat phone provider is located, if one or more resellers are involved and where they are located, where Iridium is located, if RH's POB was in Mexico or the US and how all this affects jurisdiction.

While it is true many facts are unknown I feel comfortable saying jurisdiction will be an issue and I am not sure CA will claim jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction is not really important to this extremely general and hypothetical discussion we are having. There are a couple of U.S. states which still have the old absolute concept of contributory negligence which might give the sat phone company something to run with -- again, based on the scanty and unconfirmed facts we have. For all we know, Mexico might even have jurisdiction. It hardly matters, as the very basic idea of a tort which we have here is not actually all that different even in Mexican law.

There are no such things as "maritime courts" in the U.S. -- admiralty cases are handled by the normal courts (the Federal District Courts have original jurisdiction, but under some circumstances cases can be brought in state courts). This may or may not be an admiralty case, and it may or may not be decided according to Federal maritime law, and Eric may have a choice. It doesn't matter at this stage of discussion.

Concerning the phrase ". . . CA will claim jurisdiction" -- the states don't claim jurisdiction in civil matters. They don't care; civil suits are initiated by plaintiffs, not by the states. It is the plaintiff who has to choose a court with both personal and subject matter jurisdiction and which has proper venue; the defendant (or the court) may challenge the choice if there is a basis for it. The rules are very complicated; whole courses are taught on it in law schools. Eric will probably be trying to get into a California state court, if there's any way to do it, as California is a notoriously bad state for defendants in tort cases for a long list of reasons.

[Cormorant]

It does seem that for satphone airtime resellers, if they're going to swap out one SIM for another, for whatever reason, the standard operating procedure should be to call or text the affected satphone and confirm it's not in a combat zone in Afghanistan at the moment, or mid-Pacific. . . . Not a real stretch of the imagination to figure that most satphone users are not sitting at home collecting their mail. Very odd that SatPhoneStore would do something like that.

[Cormorant]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Notwithstanding all that I wish him the best of luck. The world is not a nice place and he needs the sponduleeks.

Thread drift: I admit I had to go look this one up. Thanks for a great word to add to my vocab.

"Spondulix is 19th-century slang for money or cash, more specifically a reasonable amount of spending money. Spondulicks, spondoolicks, spondulacks, spondulics, and spondoolics are alternative spellings, and spondoolies is a modern variant. The Oxford English Dictionary has the following definition: “spondulicks: n. slang. orig. U.S. [Of fanciful formation.] Money, cash. Also, a piece of money, a coin. 1857 in R. H. Thornton Amer. Gloss. (1912), He lost..All the brass and all the needful, All the spondulix and buttons.”

There are two views on the origin of the word. The most likely is from the Greek ‘spondulox’ which is a type of shell. The Spondylus shell was used as neolithic jewellery and also an early form of money.[1]
There may also be a connection with 'spondylo-' which means spine or vertebrae, based on the similarity between a stack of coins and a spine.

Spondulix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

SNIP

Concerning the phrase ". . . CA will claim jurisdiction"

SNIP

MY bad.

I am still on my first cup of coffee.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The Kaufman’s layer, Dan Gillion, is quoted as saying that they are suing “Whenever Communications, LLC”, who do business as SatellitePhoneStore.com, out of San Diego, California, and Sarasota, Florida.

Thanks for the leg work.

Have to wonder just how deep their pockets are.

As for jurisdiction here is a blurb from their web site

"Whenever Communications, LLC is incorporated and represented in Nevada. Any legal action, jurisidiction or notice should be conducted in that state, with a notification address of: SatellitePhoneStore.com
711 S. Carson St. #4,
Carson City, NV 89701

Alternatively, legal notices may be sent to our Sarasota Florida headquarters."