# NY Ferry Crash Claims Hit $2.2 Billion 

_News_

Canonical: https://www.claimspages.com/news/i1347/

New York City has moved in federal court to invoke a maritime statute it says would limit plaintiffs‘ attempts to recover $2.2 billion in death and injury claims arising from October‘s Staten Island Ferry crash to $14.4 million.

But an attorney for one of the crash victims said today that the filing was an attempt at intimidation to compel quick settlements and that in a very similar New York City boat case an effort to use the same statute had failed.

Kate O‘Brien Ahlers, communications director for the New York City Law Department, said the city‘s action in Brooklyn Federal Court to consolidate all claims and limit liability to the value of the vessel stemmed from Federal Maritime Law based on Common Law that was codified in the 1800s.  Under that law, recovery is limited to the value of the vessel involved.

Sources:
- National Underwriter (http://www.nationalunderwriter.com/pandc/hotnews/viewPC.asp?article=12_2_03_15_11214.xml&src=5)