A Louisiana company has asked a federal judge in New Orleans to exonerate it from any liability in January’s sinking of the Gloucester fishing vessel Patriot, which was lost along with its family crew of two under mysterious circumstances.
Notified by the attorney for the co-owner of the Patriot, Josie Russo, that a suit was pending, Hornbeck Offshore Transportation LLC and a related operating company filed a "complaint for exoneration from and/or limitation of liability."
Hornbeck invoked the U.S. Limitation of Liability Act, which allows the court to limit liability to the actual value of the vessel responsible for the loss, bars any liability pending the results of a trial, and blocks any additional legal action litigants from enjoining the case until the trial is finished.