The widow of Justin Dignam, one of the 34 people who died in the fire, has filed a lawsuit against the boat's owners, making it the first claim from one of the 34 victims' families.
(AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa, File)LOS ANGELES, CA – The widow of a passenger who died in a fiery dive boat disaster that killed 34 people in the waters off California sued the vessel's owners Monday.
Christine Dignam, whose husband, Justin Dignam, died when the Conception caught fire Sept. 2 off the Santa Barbara coast, claimed that the boat was unsafe.
The lawsuit against Santa Barbara-based Truth Aquatics Inc. is the first from a relative of the victims who died.
Dignam's case is a counterclaim to a lawsuit filed pre-emptively by the boat owners to protect them from liability under a quirk of pre-Civil War maritime law.