Anchorage Hotel Ltd. is among companies named in a civil lawsuit filed in a federal court in Miami by lawyers representing Casey Schulman, who died in a boating accident in Dominica last year.
Other companies named in the suit are Institute of Shipboard Education d/b/a Semester at Sea, Global Citizens Travel, LLC, and Fountaine-Pajot S.A.
The complaint is seeking funeral costs and other monetary relief and alleges that at the time of Schulman’s death the boat captain was not properly trained or licenced and had been negligent. It also said the other companies in the suit were negligent and were somehow complicit in Schulman’s death.
Schulman, a 22-year-old University of Virginia died last December in Mero when she was struck by the propeller of a catamaran, captained by Andrew Armour, during a snorkeling excursion.
Law enforcement in Dominica has charged Armour with manslaughter and the matter is awaiting trial.
i am surprised they didnt sue the parents for having her.smh.i tell you those american their will sue the makers of vodka for making the drink that somebody drink that cause that person to hit a car that killed their cat .all aboard.(we should have seen that coming .i hope they didnt catch us with our pants down)
Andrew the whale whisperer hold strong.
So what?
“Anchorage Hotel named in federal lawsuit.” Dominica is a sovereign country, the laws in Dominica, does not apply in America, nor does the America laws apply in Dominica. Assuming that a court in America finds and rule against Anchorage, that does not mean squat doodle!
For that matter even if someone were to travel to Dominica, and serve a summons on Andrew to appear in court here; he is not obligated to do so since the incident occurred in Dominica, which is a sovereign nation, and no court in America has any jurisdiction over Dominica, neither State, nor Federal.
I had a matter in court concerning some Real Property in Los Angeles, someone and I disputed over some investments we had here; and in Antigua, the person got greedy and decided we should divide the assets, we could not agree because that person wanted me to have a property in Antigua of less value than anything that was involved here.
So, Francisco took the matter to court; the day of the trial, this person and their attorney decided to involved the property in Antigua, I was happy, because I knew exactly what was going to happen. In the final analysis the judge told the attorney, “we have to proceed with the matter before me without the introduction of anything real property, or anything else in Antigua or any other foreign country, since they are in another jurisdiction, over which I have no authority.”
So this caption here: “Anchorage Hotel named in federal lawsuit.” means nothing, only sweet sounding words. Here is another one A Calypsoian went to New York, and found one of his songs on a Label, he went back to the Caribbean and had some lawyer, write to the record company who forward the letter to their attorney, who responded by saying we do not respond to matters in foreign countries. Needless to say that was the end of the story.
Next one: The late Castle (Arrow ) of Monserrat, a white boy copied his song “Hot-Hot- Hot”, the man made millions, every West Indian knows Castle wrote and sand that song, however, to the day he died he could do nothing to the American white boy who used his lyrics, rendition, the works, got nothing for his song.
American murdered American in the Caribbean Arrested, let go, and is walking the streets in America!
Food for thought.
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
bet if this was another Caribbean island , we would be saying “why dey getting on so?’ but its the USA so its alright to file all kinda suits. on a related note, let’s first hear the facts of the case and then give our opinions.
Budman, the fact of the case; (the fact of the matter is simple); for anyone to be held responsible by a court for anything which happened in Dominica, a case must be filed in the courts of Dominica, even if the complaint is British, Canadian, American, or Mexican, or from any other country that you have not heard about.
Her family however, can file a case against any American entity, or company if they were involved, in any way obligated to take reasonable care of the victim while she was in Dominica.
Accidents happens in America everyday; people get killed in traffic accidents, unless the driver of the motor vehicle is found inebriated, or driving under the influence, ninety-five percent of the time after the police takes a statement from the drive, they simply say to the drive “you are free to go”.
I always like to qualify what I say by giving an example.
A few years ago Terry Telemaque, my first born grandson got ran over, by a car driven by a Principal of a High school in the City of Huntington Park where we lived then. She remained at the place of the incident and waited on the police, all she did was told the police, she did not see Terry until she heard the impact!
My grandson was only two years old; we could not do anything about it, she was not arrested, and no police case was filed against her. She lied and said she had no insurance, I had to retain an private investigator to investigate this lady, and discovered she had insurance, thats how we manage to recover burial coast.
In any event my grandson indeed ran across the street; he should have ben under supervision, thus he was at fault,though a child.
When his father, Francisco Telemaque, Jr., graduated high school, at age eighteen years old, I bought him a motor vehicle, he decided to go to visit his girlfriend; and by the way Terry’s mother: on his way a dope head jay walked in front of his vehicle, thus he partially ran her over. He stopped and called the paramedics, and the police, when they to the place of the accident, they found the woman high on some substance, crack, or marijuana, they simply ask my son what happen, he told them.
That was the end of the matter, my son was not charged, nor arrested to this day.
I do not even understand why in Dominica they arrested Andrew, as far as I am concerned, an accident occurred, that’s it; I am sorry this woman got killed, but it is what it is; an accident! And nothing they do within the courts of America will have any effect on Anchorage Hotel Now if Andrew and company have a bank account here, in any State, and her parents finds out, all they can do is get a court order to freeze the account and a demand for payment.
and that’s for another chapter.
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
does this court’s judgement have any merit in our system
I just hope that this girl’s family get justice. This was an accident that so easily could have been avoided.
All I want to know is how you know it could have been easily avoided. Were you there on the day of the accident?
Surely you must realize that people are twisting the words to suit their side of the case. If that is indeed what happened don’t you think that the police would have had Mr. Armour in prison already?
Before you go on about easily avoided accidents ask yourself what someone is doing by the propeller of a boat in the first place.
No, I wasn’t there but I do know that you don’t reverse a boat when there are people in the water snorkeling from your boat.
No, I don’t think the police would have had Mr Armour in prison already.
And no, you DON’T blame the dead victim for being in the water by the boat she was snorkeling from. It was a snorkeling excursion.
Were you there?
Very good. Good to know that there are people still standing up for the victims of such avoidable deaths. I hope the family of the people who died at Ti tou gorge sue the government. People have been dying at Ti tou gorge and there are still no signage, no ropes or handles on the wall or life vest. It’s time we stop paying lip service to tourism and start taking it seriously. We need to have world class safety standards and properly certified people in key positions because we are dealing with tourist from first world countries and they have the ability to extract justice from our banana republic. The death of this American will not be swept under the carpet by corrupt policemen or politicians who always protect people that know people in our injustice system.
All you cannot fool around with foreigners like you all do with all you own people. Make them pay! and make them pay a lot. Toneh! a life is a life.
I suprise the government of Dominica not included,our government failed to place safety measures in place at sea also our roads.
Explain how the rat the government supposed to be responsible for this one? The Mero beach and their tourism committee took precaution by placing buoys in the water to designate safe swimming areas for tourist and locals alike. The community and people have been working together to ensure safety measures are put in place to ensure that incidents like these do not happen yet here you are blaming the government. I am not from that community but i know damn well if they have safe areas for swimming i not going to venture outside of it them look to blame people for my injuries. What happened was tragic but you have to look at the whole picture and stop trying to cast political blame. No government can institute common sense.
you aren’t correct in your words. some institution licensed the captain and the vessel to carry on recreational activities and the captain should have the license as well as standard safety training should be passed. if the hotel or the captain operated without the license or training then they have to be sued. if the captain had required skills and training…maybe it was captain’s negligence maybe coincidence..i dont know..but surely licensing authority should conduct its own investigation. so dont tell that its government problem..its very very government problem….see Dominica is funny place: you drink and drive and if something happened you feel sorry but next day you drink and drive again…maybe its also government business to supervise through licensing a lot of activities here…
I have commented many times on these forums but this is the first time that my first impression was, stfu.
you get thumbs down .but you are so right.
Question for any lawyers in the forum? Does the Federal Court in Miami have any jurisdiction on the companies named in the lawsuit? Are any of these companies American Owned Companies? If the program was offered or approved by the University of Virginia, why are they not also suing the U of V. Just trying to understand the ramifications of this civil suit. Funeral costs and “other monetary relief,” how much exactly.
One Love Dominicans!!!
Just read the lawsuit and this can have serious implications for tourism, and life as we know it in Dominica for many who operate tours/excursions etc on island.
wellcome to america dominicans,that’s how much value these people place on their loved ones,not in dominica,a man takes of the head another man,no lawsuit filled by the victims familly,no value on the victim,on top of all that,the defending lawyer goes public boldly,and says he is dissapointed with the justice outcome,and has nerve to talk about appealling,only in dominica,i guest,the assailant is a big last name familly member,like the public law defender.
its a very sad state of affairs for everybody involved but the truth is that the system is designed for us as individuals to seek justice not by killing thoes who killed the ones we love,the system is all about getting vengence by destroying the person or company financially,we in the third world live more by the eye for a eye sytem of law but in the first world they do not kill you and then rot in jail for doing it,they totally destroy you finacially and then find some level of comfort in spending your wealth to ease their pain…..very sorry to say but anchorage and all thoes involved are in serious troublem,this is big man vibes,this is really really heavy shi,,,,so sorry for all involved,,,
So sad for the girl and for Andrew, i hope everything will be fine for The girls family and Andrew and his family
I only hope this is a wake up call to all the government shld have if not already have in place bouys separating all swimming areas noting that no propelled water crafts should be operating from sand or land to the bouys have signs posting to all so swimmers go beyond that point that is to their own risk,if we are getting into the tourist thing a lot need to be changed starting with police patrols on all frequently used beaches give those guys work to do instead of sitting at headquarters ponding beff.
Too often because we have a little last name that is a little famous we tend to believe we can get away with things. Every dog has it’s day. Hope all the others learn from that.
I SAY SUE THEM BIGTIME. Most tour operators in DA don’t even no what CPR means, no one inspects any thing. I see bus drivers with there buses packed with people driving drunk with wire showing on there tire, and there muffler smoking. I say SUE THEM WITH EVERY THING ELSE, SOME ONE GOT TO PAY, MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF NOT DOING IT THE RIGHT WAY !
I think this just turned to Greed..why are all these companies being sued for this accident?
Phew! Good thing they not suing skerrit for not having life guards and signs at the site.
Wait let them win what comes first and then take the government for what china refused
nothing.
im very sorry for what happened to this young girl. But Americans are so typical, with their lawsuits. justice should be served, but look how many companies they are suing.
Justice is never served in our courts. The amount awarded by our courts never measures up to the extent of the victims misfortune, at least not from the point of view of the victim. In fact in most cases the Treasury is the only beneficiary.
boy, wish we had a ‘Federal’ court to take matters to… all the presidency issue, the bin bobol, fertilizer bobol, You Follow firebombing, passports etc etc….
Accountability. ……….
This is the wake up call needed by Dominica ,so very unfortunate that this lovely young woman had to loose her life .
Well, Casey is dead so she can not be charged for her own negligence.
Hopefully, the lawyers for those named in the lawsuit are GOOD at ARGUMENTS. It is not you, the defendants, that should prove innocence, but the prosecutors to prove guilt.
Settling out of court is NOT always the best way to go either. Some people take that route to save on court costs and attorney’s fees, but most of them end up regretting that decision. Fight it out people, do not give up.
I do sympathize with Casey’s family on the loss of their daughter.
its not one of your family member so u can sit there and run you mouth.
are captain is responsible for his crew and passengers. u cant start a boat and have people still in the water.
TRUTH BE TOLD. No it is not a member of my family, a person is dead, yes, but do we know how she died? No. Were you there? If not, SHUT YOUR MOUTH.
The lawyers seems to have covered their ground nicely.
This is America. Only in America the answer to everything is money. They do not care who is at fault. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but in America everyone is guilty before proving innocence.
They always do when it comes to America. That is how America thrives!!!
well look it Anchorage Hotel die now…
BULLY comes in every form. If Anchorage is guilty they have to take responsibility.
woman why is me you want to eat alive nah..mind me i just say Anchorage die papa.. and thats that…i will get my lawyer after you. keep it up carmem
wicked Dominican. This is what u have to say after all these people have contributed.
Jobs etc. wicked soul
I’m sorry about wat happen to this girl
Does any one know EXACTLY what happened. I am sorry too. We all are.
I’m sorry about what happened to that girl too, but I’m also sorry for Andrew Armour. I’m sure he is tormented by this tragic accident!
pray and pray. This family is not giving up. I know it is hard but it was not the owner’s fault.
My boy is providing jobs for a number of persons. Leave everything in the hands of God and get down on yr knees and pray. These americans are not easy people.
@ Sweets
This is why some people will continue to shove crap down your throats and you will gladly accept it without question. I don’t know if I have read a more nonsensical response here.
monkey, was it Andrew’s fault? Did it happen deliberately? Who wants a tragegy like that.
I wonder if you would say the same if it was your mother, sister or daughter. Let the court decide. Lessons must be learnt from this case.
@ Sweets…I will grace you with one more response. I dont like tussling with idiots, but just this once.
Didn’t you read that Andre was charged with manslaughter? The case has not been called yet, so how can you sit you behind down and claim it was not his fault? Isn’t that what is expected at the trial?
Now step aside and learn something from people who have a brain in their heads.
Sorry, but I’m thinking more of that young lady, who lost her life. Andrew can always get another job and you will continue to see your boy but the girls’ family don’t have that option.
Isn’t it that the court must determine guilt. Why do you expect them to decide otherwise.
all I know is I will make sure that no one is in the water while I am steering a boat with a dangerous thing beneath it that can cut into flesh……you cannot be too careful……i would keep a head count like I’m OCD while I am steering that boat
seems fair