Newport Beach : Lost Sailor’s Mother Sues Ferry Company

The mother of a 22-year-old man lost at sea last October has filed a wrongful-death suit against Catalina Passenger Service Inc., charging that the company’s negligence caused the death of her son.

The woman’s son, Norman Kevin Sagona, was an experienced seaman who worked for the company, which operates a Newport Beach-to-Avalon ferry. Sagona, a deckhand, and co-worker Steven Bailey, the ferry’s captain, reportedly left Avalon on a Saturday afternoon after work in a 12-foot company motorboat but never reached their Newport Beach destination, Coast Guard officials said at the time.

Small-craft warnings had been posted, Coast Guard officials said. Although the authorities, friends and family members searched several days for signs of the two men, their bodies were never found.

The suit was filed last week on behalf of Georgia Sagona. “Although there were heavy swells which made the channel dangerous for a small boat to cross the channel, the boat was allowed to proceed on its crossing,” the suit said. “Upon starting out defendant Catalina Passenger Service, Inc. . . . provided the boat with a battery-operated radio for communication and emergency use, which had dead batteries or was otherwise unworkable.”

Norman Sagona “was lost at sea and died as a proximate result,” the document said. Georgia Sagona is asking for an unspecified amount of compensatory damages. Company owner Bob Black refused to comment on the suit. “I haven’t seen it yet,” he said.