Lifeboats

Posted: November 13, 2026 | Author: David | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent |1 Comment

The Titanic was filmed as a love story.  But to lawyers on board, the trauma must have been crushing, that their day in court would never come, their justice never served.

The White Star Line, owner of the Titanic, in fact, faced massive lawsuits which they effectively killed using an aggressive legal strategy.  The company invoked the “Limitation of Liability Act of 1851” to set the financial liability at the post-disaster value of the ship, plus its remaining freight.  14 lifeboats were recovered and made it to New York plus some luggage, while the Titanic, and approximately 1,517 passengers and crew, were laid to rest 3,800 meters beneath the frigid North Atlantic.  The company owed the dead the price of the too few lifeboats available to save them.

In the landmark case Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. v. Mellor, the United States Supreme Court resolved the lawsuit, with Oliver Wendell Holmes writing the majority opinion.  He argued a legal technicality: the lawsuit was filed in a U.S. court, so U.S. law applied.  The claimants settled out of court, for pennies on the dollar: $665,000 was paid out against $16 Million in damages, which equals 4.2 cents on the Dollar.

What is the value of human life?  To the White Star Line the value was $438 per death.

This has been on my mind, because my part time job has just finished settling a lawsuit.  Once I was a carpenter, then became Facilities Director for a private school, but their roof leaked, HVAC still leaks, and the attic access hatch is 30 feet up in the air with no ladder, so no means of access.  Legal recourse was their only option, and so I led them through the gauntlet of construction litigation.

My son, learning Latin, can translate “Res ipsa loquitur,” the legal concept of facts self-evident.  “The thing speaks for itself” is an evidentiary doctrine in tort and personal injury law that allows a court to infer a defendant was negligent based on the very nature of an accident.  The school’s roof leaked.  The design is foolish.  Need I explain?

But “Res ipsa loquitur” does not pertain here.  The school took possession and was in control for seven years before the leaks were noticed.  Almost certainly the leaks were present from the beginning.  The school did nothing that caused the leaks, but the legal fact is that possession – control – makes moot “the thing speaks for itself.”

And so I rolled up my sleeves and got to work as their Serpent of Caesar, their advocate, pressing for damages.  I hired Forensic Experts to investigate the extent of the damage.  At great cost, with considerable effort, we took the roof apart to prove there was 80% moisture content in the foam insulation beneath the metal roof.  Empirical data, I thought, was like a smoking gun.  But the ability of Defendants’ lawyers to point the finger and blame someone else is but a modern day sophistry, the dark-edged rhetorical craft of the weak argument made to look strong.

Mediation was required before litigation.  I wrote the demand packet, and produced a condensed accounting of the damages.  In an extraordinary show of hubris the architect offered 2.6 cents on the Dollar against the School’s losses.  The General Contractor offered the same.  Their offers were less than the travesty paid out by the White Star Line.  Our mediation ended with a titanic sense of dejection.  A very long road lay ahead.

Obligation has different meanings between a contractor and lawyer.  The roofing contractor quietly offered to repair the roof.  While everyone else negotiated, avoided, maneuvered, cast blame elsewhere, he stepped up.  Themis, our attorney, was stunned, explaining that in 45 years of practice she had never seen a construction litigation defendant offer to cure the problem.

I convened a “roof summit” in January.  The roofing contractor, the General Contractor, Forensic Experts and I worked out a plan.  Plain and simple, we all agreed.  But the law required a legal release, which demanded word-smithing with the essential term “Any wet insulation discovered will be removed and replaced, with the roof deck substrate (plywood) inspected, dried, or repaired as required (emphasis added).”

The lawyers did their job and then the roofing contractor fulfilled his, honoring that Agreement beyond expectations.  They began by removing four metal panels, but upon finding saturated insulation throughout, they removed the entire roof and replaced 100% of the metal, 100% of the foam insulation, 40% of the sheathing: 534 hours of labor and more than $38,000 in materials provided at no cost to the school.  “This restores my faith in humanity,” Themis commented.

The General Contractor’s lawyer refused to let them participate.  In fact, that attorney counter-sued the roofing contractor, refusing to let them out of the lawsuit.  While Themis worked on that issue I hired another contractor to handle the carpentry.  Meanwhile, the architect was nowhere to be seen.

The legal process dragged on through the summer, until Discovery and Depositions were postponed to try to settle.  The architect and General Contractor finally produced twenty four gigabytes of data; the architect’s data was not labeled, an aggressive “in your face” tactic.  I channeled my inner librarian and waded through to assemble a catalog and timeline of the evidence.

I found smoking guns, such as the engineer stating in writing that HVAC vents should be placed “below roof overhangs” rather than through the roof.  The architect ignored the engineer’s advice and emphasized the aesthetic; about the design, he stated, “The school’s auditorium and main meeting space, the walls and an undulating ceiling of site-harvested wood ‘lift your eyes and spirit toward the sun as it streams through the trees along the creek to the south.’”

Meanwhile, the HVAC contractor offered to settle.  Themis, with cunning strategy, negotiated a deal where they paid more than our expected cost to repair their negligence.

The General Contractor chimed in, ready to settle at slightly more than the 2.6 cents offered at Mediation.  Themis outmaneuvered them, getting them to increase by more than fivefold, to which they agreed.

Real money was going to change hands.  But.  Their legal release was dependent upon indemnity from the architect’s wrath; the architect’s lawyer had been breathing fire, and post settlement, the contractors could easily be counter-sued.  Their indemnity would put the school on the hook, financially, which is a burden beyond its means. 

And so the architect.

Legion are the stories of architects with unctuous egos.  Philip Johnson banned visitors  to his Glass House from bringing items in conflict with its modernist simplicity.  House as movie set.  Imhotep, the designer of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, was deified in Egypt.  The school’s architect prides himself on “the not so big ego.”  But still, his ego was too big to settle to the school’s benefit.  Refusing to pay for errors and omissions is like a “women and children first under the bus” strategy.   

The architect’s attorney made mistakes; he seemed condescending and, in my experience, was aloof.  During the forensic investigation, he refused to climb the ladder to see the upper roof.  Rich irony, since one of the complaints was that his client had failed to include an access ladder.

After the roof was replaced, he both tried to counter-sue the roofing contractor and argued that the school destroyed evidence by repairing its roof.  To claim the school should not have repaired its roof so the attorney could inspect the evidence is utter disregard of common sense.  The school had been unusually forthcoming, having invited him to every day of the investigations.

The school had lined up expert witnesses to testify the design was flawed, and that the standard of care was not followed.  Ready to litigate, the school granted extensions to try to reach settlement.  The architect’s attorney claimed the expert designation deadline had passed, which was not true.  The deadline was still one week away, per court order and signed agreement among counsel.  The attorney’s back was against the wall.  They needed to settle, and they did, finally.

What is the value of life, and of damages?  To the White Star Line life was valued at 4.2 cents on the Dollar.  To the school’s architect it was 50 cents on the Dollar.  The HVAC and General Contractors added 33 cents more to the Dollar, realizing a total cash settlement of 83 cents on the Dollar.  But the roofing contractor, alone, went beyond everyone else, donating 534 hours of labor and more than $38,000 in materials to the school.

The law can process disagreements and establish what is owed; it cannot speak to what is civil, decent, or humane.  In my experience no one wins a lawsuit.  There are just varying degrees of scarring.  The experience is a gauntlet.  But it has run its course.  It has ended.

The Titanic had 20 lifeboats with a capacity to hold 1,178 people.  Approximately 2,224 people were on board.  Of the lifeboats launched, reports state only one turned back in earnest to help the stranded people.  For the school, the roofing contractor alone returned to help.  Where the attorneys argued, the other contractors paid; he gave his time, his attention, his crew and materials.  He was the one lifeboat turning back.

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