Rebel Heart Crew Suing.....

[letsgetsailing3]

Originally Posted by maj75

Should have been How this will end. Typing too fast and no edit ability. I never had to type my briefs. Unfortunately they don't let you keep your secretary when you retire

Why don't you just tell us how it ends? Settlement? Company threatening to let it go to court, and case gets dropped?

I can't see that either party would want this to actually go to court.

[boatman61]

From what I can understand from all this the situation was..
1/ Sim was mailed 12 days before they sailed..
2/ RH knew it was coming but still chose to sail..
3/ Kids were still recovering from an illness.. Chose to sail..
4/ Blogged every day till they've had enough out there then phone suddenly fails at the crucial moment..
5/ Hits EPIRB.. gets rescued.. sinks boat..
Don't get me wrong.. now his started down this path I hope he manages to get something out of it..
But I fail to see how..
To me it seems the Supplier has met His Obligations the minute the SIM entered the Postal System.. he cannot be held responsible for it getting delayed en-route.. any more than he can be held responsible for the Skippers decision to sail before it arrived.
Furthermore having done a similar trip (Panama-Marquesas) with a phone I am aware there are many holes in the coverage at varying times of day.. or sometimes couple of days.. satellites start getting sparser as you go further South and West.
If they had not been such publicity hounds the story might ring truer... however.. with seemingly perfect service up till the day before one could be excused the sometimes cruel and cynical thoughts that wander in and out off the corridors of ones mind..
Just another Domino in the Effect..

[Spleen]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Did Eric say that he only wants to recover the cost of the rescue? I doubt it.

I don't think you can sue on behalf of a third party not involved in the lawsuit.

[valhalla360]

Another key part I haven't heard from are the rescue crews (not that they would come out publicly at this point)

If it ever made it to discovery, you can bet they would be called in to assess both the kids condition and the boats condition. I could see lots statements that would make RH look bad and conflict with his multiple conflicting story lines.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

Given that Whenever Communications LLC/SatellitePhoneStore.com lists physical offices in Florida, California, and Alaska, and that Eric at least used to claim California as a residence (and probably did - speculation - at the time he bought the phone/service) it will probably be pretty easy for even a mediocre lawyer to shop venue and choose the most promising (which I agree with DH is probably CA).

Not disagreeing that CA may well wind up having jurisdiction. But I will bet donuts to dollars that there will be a hearing about it and the defense will try to assert that RH entered the contract knowing, or should have known, that the company claims jurisdiction in NV and as a second choice FL.

But the real problem with the suit is that what ever happens Whenever Comm is probably finished. It is a fairly small company and unlikely to have enough reserve to weather the storm. Not sure about what kind of insurance they have but the lawyers from the insurance company will be fighting tooth and nail to avoid paying big bucks; and perhaps saying their liability only covers law suits in NV. So even if RH gets CA jurisdiction the amount of relief may not be that much.

RH has put Whenever Comm in a position where a burnt earth policy seems like the best approach. If the company is going out of business why not use all its resources to fight RH instead of paying money to the guy who destroyed them.

RH may well feel the company wronged him and want it destroyed. But that may well be the only relief he gets.

[dannc]

McD's had lawsuits previous to the more public lawsuit about their coffee burning people. McD knew that they were providing an unsafe product. While Coffee is best brewed at 190-200ish degrees, there is NO reason to hold the coffee, or serve it, at that temperature. I stick my finger in the heated water and sometimes spill it on me but I have never been burned much less a 2nd/3rd degree burn.

McD's was DELIBERATELY selling coffee at a temperature they knew was too hot and hurting people. Why? To save money. They had policy of free coffee refills. They were serving hot coffee that was too hot to drink so that people would not get refills and thus the company could save money.

I don't often eat at McD's, much less for breakfast, but I did at the time of the lady was burned. The coffee I had was too hot to drink and burned my tongue and lips. I had to ask for a freaking cup of ice to cool down their coffee so I could drink it. I heat up coffee every morning to about 200 degrees and by the time the coffee is brewed the coffee is perfectly safe to drink. I have NEVER had coffee served to me as hot as McD's.

Later,
Dan

[atoll]

Originally Posted by boatman61

From what I can understand from all this the situation was..
1/ Sim was mailed 12 days before they sailed..
2/ RH knew it was coming but still chose to sail..
3/ Kids were still recovering from an illness.. Chose to sail..
4/ Blogged every day till they've had enough out there then phone suddenly fails at the crucial moment..
5/ Hits EPIRB.. gets rescued.. sinks boat..
Don't get me wrong.. now his started down this path I hope he manages to get something out of it..
But I fail to see how..
To me it seems the Supplier has met His Obligations the minute the SIM entered the Postal System.. he cannot be held responsible for it getting delayed en-route.. any more than he can be held responsible for the Skippers decision to sail before it arrived.
Furthermore having done a similar trip (Panama-Marquesas) with a phone I am aware there are many holes in the coverage at varying times of day.. or sometimes couple of days.. satellites start getting sparser as you go further South and West.
If they had not been such publicity hounds the story might ring truer... however.. with seemingly perfect service up till the day before one could be excused the sometimes cruel and cynical thoughts that wander in and out off the corridors of ones mind..
Just another Domino in the Effect..

glad to hear i am not the only cynic

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...124252-32.html

could it be two self centered people,who would have suffered the condemnation of the sailing community if they had chosen to abandon their boat because of a simple issue like losing the self steering,after publicly criticising others for just that, chose to spin a sick child story to get recognition,and rescue whilst keeping the moral high ground with enough controversy to promote their blog and a book

Münchausen syndrome by proxy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
__________________

[tomfl]

[QUOTE=dannc;1582072]SNIP

I have NEVER had coffee served to me as hot as McD's.

SNIP/QUOTE]


You need to get out more.

[Spleen]

Originally Posted by tomfl

I have to say the mods here do a better job than at that site.

On the other hand reading RH's posts there left me with the impression he has been using cheap drugs.

Did you see a few accusations there of Eric hacking into other people's accounts?

[mcerdos]

My guess is there is a clause in the mice type contract releasing the SatPhone company of any wrongdoing.

On a side note, it's nice to see the Kaufmans putting the money that was raised for them them to good use? Geees!

[ontherocks83]

Originally Posted by boatman61

From what I can understand from all this the situation was..
1/ Sim was mailed 12 days before they sailed..
2/ RH knew it was coming but still chose to sail..
3/ Kids were still recovering from an illness.. Chose to sail..
4/ Blogged every day till they've had enough out there then phone suddenly fails at the crucial moment..
5/ Hits EPIRB.. gets rescued.. sinks boat..

This is the part I am confused on. As far as I understood he was never alerted by the company about the sim card and had no knowledge that it was coming. Depending on where the truth lies with this point can drastically change the case. You may be right, I'm not sure, I'm going off memory from a few months ago.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

This is the part I am confused on. As far as I understood he was never alerted by the company about the sim card and had no knowledge that it was coming. Depending on where the truth lies with this point can drastically change the case. You may be right, I'm not sure, I'm going off memory from a few months ago.

good timeline of events,post rescue here.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ty-124252.html

[maytrix]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

This is the part I am confused on. As far as I understood he was never alerted by the company about the sim card and had no knowledge that it was coming. Depending on where the truth lies with this point can drastically change the case. You may be right, I'm not sure, I'm going off memory from a few months ago.

Could it also have been avoided by contacting the company and making sure there were no issues, billing or otherwise? Even letting them know the trip ahead and crucial need for the phone to not have any issues.

Perhaps the company screwed up, but there were plenty of other mistakes prior to this that all helped lead up to it.

[zboss]

The sat company could have at least sent out a text to the phone saying "in 12 days your SIM will be disconnected if you do not do XYZ..."

They could have also called. If it was just a handful of users, this would not have been an issue.

Its not a good policy to expect sat phone users to have regular access to the mail. I am wondering how many other SIM card owners were negatively effected by this issue?

Originally Posted by maytrix

Could it also have been avoided by contacting the company and making sure there were no issues, billing or otherwise? Even letting them know the trip ahead and crucial need for the phone to not have any issues.

That is true too. On the other hand, if you check that your phone is working before you leave, how much testing do you need to do? If you apply that much effort into your phone, do you then also pull the bolts on your chainplates for an xray before leaving? Certainly, they are just as important to safety at sea as your phone.

The question remains... was the rebel heart going to be lost otherwise?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

This is the part I am confused on. As far as I understood he was never alerted by the company about the sim card and had no knowledge that it was coming. Depending on where the truth lies with this point can drastically change the case. You may be right, I'm not sure, I'm going off memory from a few months ago.

That's why I say.. "As I understand.."
Have not read their Blog.. however I remember RH's progress over the last 5yrs and some of his 'Threads/Posts' on here..
I was at sea when the drama took place so my source info is from CF.. and.. as such.. has as much value as my personal opinion or the smoke from my ciggy..