Holt v. Brown

185 F. Supp. 3d 727, 2016 A.M.C. 1679, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148560, 2016 WL 5402240
CourtDistrict Court, D. South Carolina
DecidedMay 5, 2016
DocketC.A. No. 2:14-cv-1823-PMD
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 185 F. Supp. 3d 727 (Holt v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holt v. Brown, 185 F. Supp. 3d 727, 2016 A.M.C. 1679, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148560, 2016 WL 5402240 (D.S.C. 2016).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

PATRICK MICHAEL DUFFY, United States District Judge

Plaintiffs Travis and Tiffany Holt brought this admiralty action against Defendant Scott Brown pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(h). The Holts are suing Brown for personal injuries and other damages they sustained as a result of a boating accident involving the Holts, Brown, and one other person.

The Court tried this case without a jury on January 11 and 12, 2016. Having considered the testimony and the exhibits admitted at trial, as well as the parties’ pretrial briefs and post-trial proposed findings and conclusions, the Court now makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law in accordance with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a).

FINDINGS OF FACT1

1. This case arises out of a recreational cruise that came to a jarring end when a bay boat carrying four friends ran into a dock on the night of July 5, 2013.

2. At the time of the incident, Travis Holt was a thirty-three year-old firefighter and reservist in the military who had previously been deployed twice. He worked out on a regular basis and participated in physical endurance challenges and foot races. He had no physical impairments.

3. Tiffany Holt is Travis’s wife. They were not married at the time of the incident.

4. The Holts were friends with Brown and with his then-girlfriend, Jennifer Belshe.

5. In July 2013, Brown invited the Holts to spend several days at Brown’s father’s house on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. The Holts accepted the invitation. On July 5, 2013, the Holts, Brown, and Belshe trav-elled from the South Carolina Upstate to Sullivan’s Island.

6. The vessel involved in this case was a nineteen-foot center-console bay boat. Brown’s father kept the Boat on a lift in the Intracoastal Waterway behind the Sullivan’s Island house.

7. At the time of the incident, Brown was forty-four years old. He had operated boats nearly all his life and was very familiar with the portion of the Intracoastal Waterway that runs along Sullivan’s Island and the adjacent Isle of Palms. He also [731]*731had ample experience operating the Boat in that portion of the Waterway.

8. On the afternoon of July 5,' the Holts, Brown, and Belshe boarded the Boat to cruise the nearby areas. Brown had his father’s permission to use the Boat.

9. Brown handled all the preparations for the cruise. He removed the Boat’s cover, checked its fuel supply, lowered it into the water, started its motor, and navigated it off of the lift.

10. Brown first navigated the Boat down the Waterway and into Charleston harbor, where the group cruised for some time. Brown handled all the steering and other operational tasks of navigating the Boat. He then headed over to Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, where he docked the Boat by himself. This leg of the cruise occurred without incident.

11. The Holts, Brown, and Belsche then had dinner at a restaurant on Shem Creek.

12. After dinner, the four friends boarded the Boat again. Brown undocked the Boat and navigated it back to the dock at his father’s house. Brown docked the Boat, and he and Travis Holt briefly went to the house to get jackets for Tiffany Holt and Belshe.

13. When Brown and Travis Holt returned to the Boat, Brown again undocked it and navigated it into the Waterway. He headed up the Waterway toward the Isle of Palms, giving his passengers a tour as they cruised.

14. They eventually reached the Isle of Palms Marina. Brown docked the Boat at the marina, and then he and the others went to a nearby restaurant to listen to some live music. This leg of the trip occurred without incident.

15. By the time they left the restaurant, it was well after nightfall. Agreeing it was time to go back to the house on Sullivan’s Island, they returned to the Boat. Once more, Brown started the Boat and un-docked it. He navigated away from the marina and into the Waterway, heading toward Sullivan’s Island.

16. The section of the Waterway "on which Brown and his passengers were travelling that night runs between the Isle of Palms, to port, and Goat Island, to starboard. Dozens of docks line both sides of the Waterway; many extend nearly to the borders of the -navigational channel. That night, some of the docks from the Isle of Palms were illuminated by lights on the docks. In contrast, most of the docks on the other side of the Waterway were unlit, and the few houses on sparsely populated Goat Island offered little light for that side of the Waterway.

17. The Boat was equipped for the use of a GPS and depth-finding device, but on the day of the incident, Brown elected to leave the device at his father’s house. Additionally, Brown did not bring any spotlights or flashlights aboard for the cruise.

18. Brown began the cruise home by navigating the Boat- through a no-wake zone near the marina. Once he was out of the zone, he increased the Boat’s speed to get the Boat running on plane.

19. Brown then invited Travis Holt to steer the Boat. Travis had limited watercraft experience on lakes and no experience with navigating in tidal waters. Brown assured him that he would help Travis steer the Boat and provide instructions, and that nothing bad would happen. Travis accepted, took a seat behind the steering wheel, and began steering. Brown stood to Travis’s immediate left.

20. As- Travis Holt was behind the steering wheel, Brown told him not to touch the throttle. Brown instructed Travis on where to turn the wheel and where to head the Boat. Belshe also provided Travis instruc[732]*732tions on how to steer the vessel. Travis followed all instructions.

21. After a while, a johnboat approached the Boat from the opposite direction. Travis Holt became nervous about colliding with it. Brown and Belshe both instructed Travis turn the steering wheel to the right so as to avoid the other boat.

22. The parties disagree over who was steering the Boat from that moment forward. According to Travis Holt, Brown returned to the steering wheel to complete the turn away from the oncoming john-boat. A short time later, Travis looked out ahead of the Boat, saw an unlit dock on Goat Island just ahead, and yelled.

23. According to Brown, however, Travis continued to steer the Boat and Brown continued to stand beside him. Brown testified he then turned around to pick up an item that had blown onto the deck behind him. When he turned back towards the bow of the Boat, Brown saw the dock immediately in front of the bow.

24. Regardless of who was steering, it is undisputed that the Boat crashed into the dock. The allision occurred with sufficient force to cause extensive damage to the dock and to the Boat. All four occupants of the Boat were injured; Travis Holt and Brown were knocked unconscious.

25. Tiffany Holt and Belshe called 911 from their cell phones. They flagged down a nearby boat, whose occupants towed the Boat to a dock on the Isle of Palms where, by that time, emergency medical personnel had arrived.

26.

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185 F. Supp. 3d 727, 2016 A.M.C. 1679, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148560, 2016 WL 5402240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holt-v-brown-scd-2016.