August 2010    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 25, No. 8   What's this?

Court Rules Dive Release is “Too Specific”

how this could change the dive shop’s liability release you sign

from the August, 2010 issue of Undercurrent  

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In May 2010, the California Second Court of Appeal (DCA) ruled that the liability release used by the dive shop Scuba Luv on Catalina Island did not apply to a wrongful death lawsuit filed against it by the family of Raffi Huverserian. That reversed a Los Angeles Superior Court judge’s decision to grant Scuba Luv summary judgment based on the release.

In March 2005, Huverserian, 45, rented dive gear from Scuba Luv, signing a rental agreement that contained a liability release. He and his 17-year-old son dove at Casino Point with the rented gear. At 60 feet, Huverserian ran out of air, made a controlled ascent sharing his son’s air, then went into cardiac arrest on the beach. He died the next day at UCLA Medical Center. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s report states death was probably due to an air embolism. ...