Damages upheld in ferry collision

A federal appeals court has upheld $4.2 million in damages against the Golden Gate Bridge District for a collision between a district ferry and a speedboat that killed the speedboat’s pilot and injured a passenger.

The ferry, carrying about 500 passengers, was making its regular 3:50 p.m. run from Sausalito to San Francisco in February 2013 when the 22-foot motorboat struck it in Richardson Bay. The court said the motorboat’s pilot, Harry Holzhauer, was looking the other way, at the San Francisco skyline, when the boat hit the ferry. The court also said there was evidence that the ferry captain was on his cell phone moments before the collision.

Holzhauer, 68, of Tigard, Ore., was killed. His passenger and lifelong friend, David Rhoades, 64, of Tiburon, suffered fractures and was hospitalized

for seven weeks.

A federal court jury found that Holzhauer was 70 percent responsible for the crash and the bridge district was 30 percent responsible. Jurors awarded damages against the bridge district totaling $3.73 million to Rhoades and $1.55 million to Mary Holzhauser, the pilot’s widow, but her damages were reduced to $464,000 because of her husband’s partial responsibility.

On appeal, lawyers for the bridge district and Holzhauer’s widow both argued that Rhoades should be held partially responsible. Because Rhoades owned the boat and had allowed Holzhauer to pilot it, the lawyers contended, he should have acted as a lookout and was negligent for not warning Holzhauer about the nearby ferry.

But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said no passenger, even the owner of a craft, is legally required to keep watch on its path.

An owner like Rhoades “has no duty to keep a lookout unless the owner-passenger was jointly operating the boat or the owner-passenger knows from past experience or from conduct that day that the person operating the boat is likely to be inattentive or careless,” Judge Ronald Gould said in the 3-0 ruling filed Friday.

He said Holzhauer was an experienced boater, and Rhoades made a reasonable decision when he turned over piloting of the craft to his friend. The court also rejected the bridge district’s argument that Rhoades was negligent for failing to equip his boat with radar reflectors that would have made it easier to detect. Gould said the reflectors may be a good practice but are not in standard use among small-boat owners and are not legally required.

Lawyers for the bridge district and Mary Holzhauer were not available for comment.