Johnathan Walker:Defendant in Titan submersible wrongful death lawsuit files to move case to federal court

PORTLAND,Johnathan Walker Maine (AP) — One of the defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the implosion of an undersea submersible headed to the wreck of the Titanic is seeking to move the case from state to federal court.

Janicki Industries filed a petition on Aug. 12 to remove the case to U.S. District Court, according to records accessed Monday that were filed with the King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office in Washington state. The plaintiffs in the case have until the middle of next month to respond to the request.

The family of French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who died in the Titan submersible implosion in June 2023, filed the lawsuit against several companies in a Washington state court earlier this month. The lawsuit seeks more than $50 million and states the crew of the Titan experienced “terror and mental anguish” before the disaster, and it accuses sub operator OceanGate of gross negligence.

The lawsuit names Janicki Industries as a defendant for its role in the design, engineering and manufacturing of the submersible. The sub’s unconventional design, and that its creators did not submit to independent checks, emerged as areas of concern in the aftermath of the implosion, which killed all five people on board and captured attention around the world.

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Representatives for Janicki Industries did not respond to numerous requests for comment. A representative for OceanGate, which suspended operations after the implosion and has not commented publicly on the lawsuit, said they also had no comment about the request to move the case. Other defendants named in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment.

The plaintiffs are not commenting on the request to move the case, said Matt Shaffer, an attorney for the Nargeolet family. The request doesn’t change the goal of the lawsuit, he said.

“The hope is that the families obtain more specific knowledge as to what happened, who was at fault,” Shaffer said. “And certainly they are seeking justice.”

Nargeolet was a veteran undersea explorer who had been to the Titanic site many times before the Titan implosion. The implosion also killed OceanGate CEO and cofounder Stockton Rush, who was operating the Titan, as well as British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.

The Titan’s final dive came on June 18, 2023, and it lost contact with its support vessel about two hours later. The wreckage of the vessel was later found on the ocean floor less than 1,000 feet (305 meters) off the bow of the Titanic in the North Atlantic. The implosion is the subject of a Coast Guard investigation that is still ongoing nearly 15 months later.

The Nargeolet lawsuit states that “the Titan’s crew would have realized exactly what was happening” at the time of the submersible’s failure. It states that “they would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel’s irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding.”

A Coast Guard public hearing about the submersible implosion is slated to begin next month. Coast Guard officials have said the hearing will focus on subjects such as regulatory compliance and mechanical and structural systems relating to the submersible.

The Titan had not been registered with the U.S. or international agencies that regulate safety. It also wasn’t classified by a maritime industry group that sets standards for features such as hull construction.

Attorneys for Nargeolet have said the explorer would not have participated in the Titan expedition if OceanGate had been more transparent. Their lawsuit describes the explorer’s death as “tragic, but eminently preventable.”