What is Mermaid Marine Australia's liability for the Trinity II tragedy?

Not surprisingly, Mermaid Marine Australia is busy issuing statements that it bears no responsibility for the September 8, 2011 Trinity II tragedy in the Bay of Campeche.  As we have previously reported, MMA still has not provided an adequate answer for why its vessel, Mermaid Vigilance, fled for shore rather than trying to rescue the workers who were fighting for their lives.  It looks like we will have to obtain answers to this question in the lawsuit we filed on behalf of one of the workers workers who died in this incident.

Our clients and others have asked us:  will United States maritime law apply to MMA?  And if so, what will MMA's liability be under U.S. law for its actions in this tragedy?

We have analyzed this legal question, and in our opinion U.S. maritime law will indeed apply to MMA in this matter.  This tragedy involved two other companies who are American companies:  Geokinetics (Houston, Texas) and Trinity Liftboats (New Iberia, Louisiana).  Further, most of the workers involved were U.S. residents.  These factors, along with the legal authorities, will call for the application of U.S. law to this matter in our opinion.  Even the foreign workers who were injured or lost their lives in this incident should be able to have U.S. law applied to their claims or the claims of their surviving families.

The application of U.S. law is favorable for these workers and their families.  U.S. maritime law provides remedies for damage items such as medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering, mental anguish, and loss of a family member.  For an incident such as this one, these items can involve very significant amounts of compensation.  

MMA, as the only non-U.S. company involved in this tragedy, will probably try to get out of U.S. law and argue that some other law, like Australian law, should apply to it.  We have faced similar arguments in the past, and have a record of beating these types of claims in court.