The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri today dismissed indictments against three employees of Ride the Ducks Branson, which operated a boat that sank at Table Rock Lake during a severe thunderstorm in July 2018.
The boat’s captain, operations manager and general manager faced charges of criminal misconduct and negligence.
Tricia Bath led the pretrial motions and argument on behalf of the operations manager. Central to the case was determining whether the court had jurisdiction; the motion to dismiss argued that it did not, because Table Rock Lake is not deemed “navigable” under admiralty law.
More information is available at Missouri Lawyers Weekly.
