BRANSON MO NEWS: BRANSON, Mo. — In a statement filed in court last week, Ripley Entertainment is claiming the victims of the July 19 Duck Boat tragedy on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri, are only entitled to the salvage value of the boat.Ripley Entertainment is working to settle all 19 suits it’s facing in federal or state court.
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According to Ripley Entertainment, the company is working with local mediators including Kansas City mayor Sly James to resolve the case out of court. Attorneys in the cases had agreed to delay proceedings to help find a settlement. That may be jeopardy after the new filing.“I think that their claims of trying to mediate in good faith, when they filed this months before they absolutely had, to rings hollow,” Robert Mongeluzzi, an attorney who represents many of the victims’ families, said. Court filings show Ripley is attempting to use a federal law dating back to 1851 which limits how much money families can recover in damages if someone dies on a navigable water due to negligence of the captain.“Ultimately this is just another delay tactic by Ripley’s. It will fail just as their duck boat failed and it’s really an insult to the families that they have already slaughtered,” Mongeluzzi said. The law was used as defense in a similar suit Mongeluzzi was part of in Philadelphia after a duckboat crash that killed two people. That case settled in 2017 for undisclosed terms.Mongeluzzi said the law is void if it can be proven that the company knew the storm was coming or that they knew the boat was unsafe. “They had a death trap duck boat that they sent out into a storm that they knew was coming,” he said. Ripley Entertainment said the company is committed to finding a fair deal …
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