Marina Dock Age, April/May 2001

Make Sure Your Marina is Protected in Our Iitigious Society
by Ron Brazda

There once was a time when attorneys were used only in worst-case scenarios, for real estate closings, or for settling a will. Nowadays nearly everyone has someone they can call “my lawyer.”

I live on a small island in the middle of the ocean, where the ratio of advertised law firms to people is one to 423. Assuming that the average law firm employs between three and five attorneys, that equals one attorney for every hundred people inhabiting a 32-square mile island.

I recently had the opportunity to be the interim manager at a marina in Washington, D.C. During my first two days there, I must have heard the word “sue” at least 50 times—more than I had in my entire life. These “lawsuits” never came to fruition, but it proved to me that we live in a society where people think if someone looks at you wrong, you can sue them.  

Marina owners and operators spend more time and money on attorneys then you might like to think about. I once saw a commercial lease that was 65 pages long. This was for just one business occupying office space and a boat slip—that’s it. Leases and contracts like this seem to be written by an attorney for an attorney. They are written with the assumption that one party will sue the other eventually, and you have to trust that your lawyer has covered all of his or her bases to keep you clear.  

The problem still exists of how long such agreements should be. Is asking your customer to sign a ten-page document to rent a boat slip too much? Ask your attorney and he will say no. Ask your customer and you will probably get a response filled with four letter words.  

If you are operating a boat rental operation, a well-written and executed boat rental agreement can save you money in damages. When I was renting boats, I was personally named in a suit by a boater who broke his arm. The suit claimed that the company and I never informed him that boating can be dangerous. Our contract, which we thought at the time was excessively long, was our saving grace. Not only did the contract, which they signed and initialed in all of the twenty places, cover injury, it also covered accidental death. Once we sent signed copies of the agreement to the accuser’s attorney, the suit was immediately dropped.

It is the responsibility of each property owner or manager to make sure your property is a safe and hazard-free environment. Simple things that are often overlooked can increase your risk of being on the wrong end of a lawsuit. Cracks in your parking lot can be a liability to you. Someone could drown in your marina, and because there was no life ring on the dock, you could be held liable.

It is like the old saying goes, If it weren’t for lawyers, we would not need lawyers. Since we do have them, there will be litigation. In our current day and age, there are more things to sue about than most people think.