Dave wrote:

This past september my docklines broke during a gale sending my Holder
20 sailboat into the neighboring powerboat cause about $5000 in damage
to the powerboat. A claim was filed through my homeowner's insurance.
The claim was rejected because my insurance company said that this
was an act of god and I was not responsible. After several go arounds
with my insurance company, I recommended that the owner of the
powerboat file through his insurance company. I recently found out
that his insurance company rejected the claim because he took to long
to file. Anyhow, the guy who runs my marina recently called me to let
me know that the powerboat owner was planning to sue me. I am
currently looking for an attorney to review this situation, but I was
curious if anyone knew who is legally responsible for the damage,
myself or the powerboat owner. I spoke to an attorney today and he
said that I would need a maritime lawyer for this case. As I searched
maritime law today, I could not find any rules and regs that apply to
my case. The inland rules only talk about responsibility while
underway.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I think that usenet is not the best place to seek legal advice. What
you'll get is anecdotal at best, and most likely apochryphal or just
plain delusional.

That said, Dave (the other Dave) seems to have his head screwed on
straght. I'd add that given the cost of litigation, $5000 lawsuits are
not all that common, and that a guy who's lazy enough to miss filing an
insurance claim by the deadline may take awhile before he gets around to
actually filing a lawsuit (i.e. never, but he'll talk a blue streak
about it).

--
//-Walt
//
// Sigs suck. Oh, the irony.