Lengthy legal dispute

An architect was contracted to design the hull and rigging for a new yacht. Another naval architecture firm was contracted to design the interior. The yacht was completed and delivered to the owner.

However, during a party on board one of the guests became ill and decided to go to sleep early. When he awoke, in the middle of the night, he fell down a small set of stairs inside the yacht.

The guest suffered damage to his back and hip and as a result sued all parties involved with the yacht. The parties included the owner, the builder, the surveyor and the two naval architecture companies.

Legal counsel was appointed by ITIC to defend the naval architect who was insured by ITIC. Despite the fact that any design fault on the interior of the vessel had no relation to the work carried out by the architect insured by ITIC, they were jointly sued in the amount of USD 1 million.

Lawyers spent over USD 150,000 and 7 years attempting to obtain a judgment of removing the naval architect from the proceedings.

A costly event, for something that was not even due to any negligence by the naval architect.