Family Loses Diving Death Lawsuit

An Orange County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday against a Garden Grove man being sued by his best friend’s family after the friend died while scuba diving on Thanksgiving Day 1995.

The family of Le Tran Nguyen had sought damages from Doug Shipway, whose boat Nguyen was diving from off Laguna Beach. The 49-year-old victim was not a certified diver, but Nguyen and Shipway had been on at least 60 dives together over the years.

Judge Robert Polis noted that although the death was tragic, Shipway had no legal duty to his friend once the pair made the decision to dive separately for lobster and that the accident was the result of a “well-known risk inherent in the diving world.”

Shipway’s attorney, Bill Turbeville, said Saturday that the judge’s decision should send a message that adults who engage in risky sports cannot go looking for someone to blame if an accident occurs.

“The principle is that for co-participants in a voluntary recreational activity or sport, there is no duty of care owed between the two,” Turbeville said. “It is known as primary assumption of the risk.”

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In the lawsuit, Nguyen’s family contended that Shipway, an advanced scuba diver who had completed more than 1,000 dives, was “reckless” in several ways and therefore should be held responsible for the accident.

They claim he failed to attempt to rescue Nguyen, waited an hour before calling Harbor Patrol, failed to observe the “buddy system” of diving in pairs, and should not have provided an air-filled scuba tank to an uncertified diver and allowed him to dive from his boat.

“It’s a very tragic story on both sides,” Turbeville said. “A wife and three kids were left behind, so they sued claiming [Shipway] should not have allowed him to dive because he wasn’t certified. If it had been an instructor, that would be different, but these were just two friends and there was no reason to hold this fellow’s best friend liable for a decision that Le made himself.”

Nguyen, a resident of Huntington Beach, was diving from Turbeville’s cabin cruiser when he failed to resurface. Rescue divers found Nguyen’s body in about 40 feet of water with his scuba gear still on but no air in his tank.

An autopsy listed drowning as the cause of death as well as an air embolism, the type of injury or death caused by divers using unsafe or improper ascent procedures, Turbeville said.

Attorneys for Nguyen’s family could not be reached for comment.