Posted by MHK on November 20, 2001 at 09:33:17:
In Reply to: He might not be a Lawyer, but he has played them on TV! posted by Wayne on November 19, 2001 at 17:12:39:
Wayne,
Ken is engaging is revisionist history. Plain and simple..
FTR, he never had a waiver until Reef Seekers suffered it's first fatality, and trust me I know first hand because I was the DM on the trip, and even after the fatality [ and thank God we didn't get sued because Gina Schott was of the opinion at the time that we had some exposure issues].. He can say all he wants online today, but I was on the phone with the lawyers day and night about the very issue so any other version of the story is utter BS.. I refused to continue to DM for Reef Seekers until they required waivers..
Then Ken wrote up his own *Agreement* or whatever he is calling it now. I some some serious problems with the fact that Ken was writing his own waiver, instead of using the industry standard waiver, and one of Ken's contious comments was that in his view that he didn't believe that the waivers would hold up since they were written in 8 point type.. He is being so hypocritical about the issue and flat out lying because I said to him on many occasions that if that was truely a concern then he should simply re-type the waiver in whatever point type he felt necessary.. Furthermore, when we discussed the issue with Gina Schott of Lesser & Assoc. [ in other words the very lawyer that was handling any potential litigation in the fatality that prompted the entire issue] Gina was clear in that if you used the industry standard waiver, and tha facts warranted, you would likely get a sumary judgement and not need to go through the motions of trial. Whereas she was much less confident in the home brew waiver that Ken offered. She consistently maintained that there was numerous precedential value using the industry waiver and that it had been tested time and again, whereas Ken's home brew was untested and she could not offer any reasonable certainty that it would withstand legal challenges...
Wayne, for you to suggest that *the opposite of my position is true* is disingenuos. Please realize that I was the guy on the hook, I was the guy who spoke with the lawyers, and I spent countless hours with Ken discussing/arguing the point. In fact, I told Ken that unless he instituted a waiver policy that I would no longer DM for his shop.. If he says anything other then the above he if full of sh*t because the facts are what they are.. Trust me because it always stuck me as strange that a guy that invents as many legal theories as Ken, wouldn't use a waiver and it wasn't until he had a fatality on the Cee Ray did he address the issue.
I challenge Ken to dispute anything that I have posted above because it is 100% absolutely accurate and any other viewpoint is a lie...
Later