By Michael Goldberg

I went to lunch today with a very good attorney who has a boat accident case. The case involves a person who was injured at retreat when the boat operator accidentally engaged the throttle while the claimant was trying to board the back of the boat. The claimant fell out of the boat and onto the propeller suffering multiple lacerations to his leg. Georgia law provides a very unusual type of strict liability for the owner of a boat. The owner of the boat is liable for the negligence of the boat operator as long as the operator had permission from the owner to use the boat. The boat operator is normally covered by his homeowner’s policy for his negligence in the operation of the boat. The owner of the boat would be covered under his separate homeowner’s policy (assuming the owner and operator are not the same person). The claimant is able to reach the insurance of both the boat operator and the boat owner. The claimant only has to prove that the boat operator had the permission of the boat owner in using the vessel. This form of imputed liability to the boat owner can also be used to get around any bars that may exist to suing the boat operator including worker’s compensation, intra-family immunity or sovereign immunity.