Opinion ID: 535633
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Duty of Reasonable Care

Text: 52 Defendant Boles argues that the trial court erred in finding him liable as owner. He argues that decedents and Bay Haven Marina were owners pro hac vice and that they were therefore responsible for the vessel's condition. The trial court, however, determined that Boles was not liable to plaintiffs as a result of his ownership status. Rather, the court found that Boles was negligent in failing to inform the decedents of the boat's latent defects. 53 Boles also argues that the District Court erred in concluding that he was liable on the basis of a failure to advise the decedents about the water intake problem. He first contends that he had no duty to warn the decedents. The District Court properly relied upon Kermarec v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 358 U.S. 625, 632, 79 S.Ct. 406, 410, 3 L.Ed.2d 550 (1959), for the proposition that general principles of admiralty law require that an owner exercise such care as is reasonable under the circumstances. 13 Boles next contends that the court erred in finding that a latent danger existed and that Boles appreciated the risks but nonetheless failed to warn the decedents of them. We disagree. As stated above, we believe the record provides sufficient evidence to establish that the defect existed. The record also establishes that Boles appreciated the risk of the water intake problem, for he was forced to stop the boat on several occasions in order to deal with the problem. Finally, the record establishes that he failed to warn the decedents. Although at one point Boles testified that he did not recall whether he advised decedents of the problem, he testified elsewhere that he told decedents nothing specific in terms of particular problems of the boat. The District Court was not clearly erroneous in accepting as true one of these statements.