Santa Monica resident Daniel Carlock was stranded 12 miles off the coast in Los Angeles for over three hours as his charter left while Carlock was still in the ocean. The victim and Ocean Adventures Dive Co. were in a long and heated battle in a 23 day jury trial.
Carlock claimed that the boat left him at the initial dive site and went to another dive site site miles away without properly accounting for him prior to departing. A dive master accidentally recorded him as present before moving on to the next site and even marked him present prior to the second dive. The crew realized Carlock was missing sometime during the second dive and notified the U.S. Coast Guard. He was later picked up by a ship carrying boy scouts.
Attorney’s argued that the victim suffered post traumatic stress disorder and got skin cancer as a result of the 3 hour exposure in the ocean. The jury took all of this into consideration, and after a 2 ½ day deliberation, awarded $1.68 million in damages.