Court: Ocean City Not Liable for 2006 Boating Death

OCEAN CITY — An appeals court decision released on Tue., June 29 found that this city isn’t responsible for the summer 2006 boating death of a 16-year-old girl in the back bays.
On July 20 that year, Anne Marie Lynch, of Barrington in Camden County, was killed while vacationing here when the personal watercraft (PWC) she was riding collided with a private dock in the Carnival Bayou lagoon area, behind West 17th Street. Her head struck a dock piling and the yellow PWC she rode was smashed to pieces. Nearby construction workers pulled her from the water and a nurse at the scene tried CPR, to no avail.
Prior to the accident, Lynch’s uncle gave her the PWC he had borrowed from a friend. Neither Lynch nor her uncle had PWC experience or had taken a boat safety course as required by city regulations.
“A person shall not operate a personal watercraft on the tidal waters within the jurisdiction of the City of Ocean City without having successfully completed a boat safety course approved by the Superintendent of the State Police…or a written test,” the municipal ordinance stated.
Lynch launched the PWC from the municipal boat ramp located on Tennessee Avenue after paying the municipal employee a $10 ramp fee. The employee at the time, James Lawrence, did not ask them if they had the appropriate training or competency to operate a jet ski. Lawrence has since died, court documents stated.
John Lynch, Anne Marie’s father, sued the city for failure to enforce its boat safety training requirement as well as negligent supervision of its employee.
In Cape May County Superior Court, Judge Daryl F. Todd, Sr. found Ocean City immune from liability based on a state law that provides that a “public entity is not liable for any injury caused by adopting or failing to adopt a law or by failing to enforce any law.” The boat safety course requirement deals with enforcement of the law, Todd explained.
Todd also found no negligence on the employee’s part, noting that the accident did not occur at the Tennessee Avenue boat launch where Lawrence supervised activities. Rather, it occurred in the back bays, in an area beyond his control.
At trial, John Lynch’s marine safety expert suggested that Ocean City failed to maintain its standard of safety at the boat ramp by not ensuring that PWC operators completed a boat safety course. If attendants had checked for proof of training, permission to launch would not have been granted and Anne Marie Lynch wouldn’t have died, the expert argued.
Despite those arguments, Todd dismissed the case against the city.
John Lynch appealed.
The two-judge Appellate Division panel sided with Todd, affirming his dismissal.
“When reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we employ the same standards used by the motion judge,” the opinion stated. “Based on our review of the record, with all favorable inferences to plaintiff, and the applicable law, we find plaintiff’s arguments to be unpersuasive and affirm substantially for the reasons articulated by Judge Todd.”
The judges said immunity was the dominant consideration of the applicable law.
“When one of the Act’s provisions establishes liability, that liability is ordinarily negated if the public entity possesses a corresponding immunity,” the judges stated.
“Although plaintiff’s claim is couched in terms of negligent supervision, he is basically asserting a failure of the City to enforce its municipal ordinance precluding use of the waterways by an unlicensed or untrained person such as Lynch,” the opinion continued. “Judge Todd correctly found the City to be expressly immune…for such inaction.”
Regarding the negligent supervision claim, the judges said Lawrence wasn’t at fault.
“Lynch was not injured by any object or condition related to the municipal ramp or in any proximity to the ramp,” the opinion concluded. “The ramp attendant’s duties did not extend to supervising or patrolling the waterways.”
The summer of 2006 was particularly tragic for Ocean City PWC users.
On Aug. 28 that year, Brian Kirsh, 28, of Conshohocken, Pa., was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after a PWC crash occurred around 2 p.m. near the 34th Street Bridge.
According to a recent release from the State Police, New Jersey’s PWC regulations state that a person is not permitted to operate a PWC above minimum headway speed within 100 feet of buoys or signs that mark the boundaries of a swimming area, the shoreline, any person in the water, or residential dwelling units. Additionally, PWCs are not permitted to be operated in such a manner so as to make the vessel completely leave the water or otherwise become airborne within 100 feet of another vessel.
Preexisting laws that remain unaffected by the recent changes require that PWCs be operated only between sunrise and sunset and during times of good visibility. They are also not permitted to be operated within the confines of the Point Pleasant Canal in Ocean County, or the Cape May Canal in this county.
As discussed in the Lynch appeal, PWC operators must be at least 16 years of age, and must have a boating safety certificate in their possession.