'Limitation of Liability' Filings Are Common in Maritime Lawsuits

NEW ORLEANS - Recent filings in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana show that the Deepwater Horizon owner's use of statutory limits on liability for the April 20 oil rig explosion and spill is not an unusual legal strategy in maritime law.

Triton Asset Leasing and various Transocean Ltd. entities asked a federal court on May 13 to limit their liability to the value of their ownership as allowed under a federal "Shipowners' Limitation of Liability" act in effect since 1851. In re The Complaint and Petition of Triton Asset Leasing GmbH, et al., No. 4:10-cv-01721 …