page_title: Ethan Allen boating accident
section_title: Lawsuit
hierarchical_section_title: Ethan Allen boating accident / Lawsuit
caption_attribution_description: English: Monument at Lower Amherst Street, shore of Lake George, Lake George Village, NY commemorating the 20 deaths in the capsizing of the sightseeing boat Ethan Allen on October 2, 2005
context_page_description: The Ethan Allen was a 40-foot, glass-enclosed tour boat operated by Shoreline Cruises on Lake George in upstate New York. On October 2, 2005, at 2:55 p.m., with 47 passengers—all from Michigan and Ohio and mostly seniors—aboard, the Ethan Allen capsized and sank just south of Cramer Point in the Town of Lake George. Twenty passengers died. The accident caused government regulators to consider new laws on passenger boat capacity.
context_section_description: A lawsuit was brought by the victims and their families in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York against Shoreline Cruises; its affiliate Quirks Marine Rentals; boat captain Richard Paris; Scarano Boat Building Inc., which modified the Ethan Allen; Shoreline Travel & Tours Inc., a Canadian firm that organized the leaf-peeping tour; and the Lake George Steamboat Company, operator of the Mohican. On June 25, 2008, it was announced that Shoreline Cruises, Quirks, and Paris settled with the plaintiffs for undisclosed terms. In September 2008 a trial date for April 13, 2010 for the remaining defendants was announced. The portion of the suit against Scarano was dismissed because of a lack of evidence.
  It came to light that Shoreline Cruises had been sold a fraudulent liability insurance policy. Shoreline paid premiums for a $2 million policy for about two years before the Ethan Allen capsized. Two weeks after the incident, they were told the policy did not exist.
  The last lawsuit, in which the state of New York was named as a defendant because state boat inspectors were alleged to have been negligent, was dismissed by the state’s highest court in November 2012. The Court of Appeals found the state had “governmental immunity.”
caption: Memorial monument
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