Dueling visions of Carman in closing arguments in insurance case

PROVIDENCE -- Nathan Carman is either a deceptive young man whose shoddy repairs led to the sinking of his boat with his mother presumably on board or a victim of a terrible misfortune brought on by a boat that never should have been on the water.

Starkly different portrayals of 26-year-old Carman played out Wednesday in closing arguments before U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Carman's quest for $85,000 in insurance coverage for the sunken 31-foot Chicken Pox. The insurers -- Boat Owners Association of the United States and National Liability & Fire Insurance Co. -- are asking the court to find that the insurance contract was void due to faulty repairs that compromised the boat's seaworthiness.

The insurers denied Carman's insurance claim after the boat sank far offshore Sept. 18, 2016. While Carman was found aboard a life raft seven days after he says the boat suddenly took on water and sank, his mother, 54-year-old Linda Carman, has not been seen since they departed Ram Point Marina and is presumed dead.

David Farrell, a lawyer for the insurers, dismissed Carman's testimony about the sinking as entirely lacking in credibility.

"Not one word or even scream from his ever vigilant mother?" Farrell asked, adding "We're now 100 miles at sea in stunning silence?" He suggested that Carman's mother must have been unconscious, or perhaps, not even on board as Carman readied the life raft and three bags of supplies.

Carman told the court during his day and half on the stand that he didn't alert his mother about water filling the bilge because she would have panicked and instead his last words to her were to pull in the tuna fishing lines.

Carman's lawyer, David Anderson, argued just as strenuously that the boat itself was at fault. He looked to testimony by a man who worked on the boat about the vessel, which was originally constructed as fiberglass mold, being made of cheap wood and waterlogged.

"This thing was never designed to be a boat ...," Anderson said as Carman listened intently. "We know the boat was waterlogged."

Anderson dismissed testimony by Brian Woods, who sold Carman the Chicken Pox after rebuilding it, and the man who surveyed it before the sale as self-interested due to the boat's apparent sinking with Linda Carman aboard. Woods shook his head as Anderson addressed the court.

"I would suggest to you that the hull of the boat was not sound ... It never was," Anderson said.

Nathan Carman enters the federal courthouse for closing arguments in his boat insurance case@Projopic.twitter.com/ZuJjxHCYOB

-- Katie Mulvaney (@kmulvane)September 4, 2019

Lawyers for Carman's three aunts observed Tuesday as they have throughout the trial. Underpinning the insurance dispute are allegations that Nathan Carman removed trim tabs, leaving four putty-filled holes in the transom, and failed to make sure the bilge pump he replaced worked and that those faulty repairs led to the sinking and contributed to his mother's death. He also remains a person of interest in the shooting death of his grandfather, John Chakalos, in 2013.

McConnell issued an order specifying that he would not be trying, at least initially, counts that allege intentional acts by Carman. The judge barred evidence regarding either Chakalos, or questions about whether Carman caused the death of his mother.

Carman's aunts are trying to block Carman from receiving millions of dollars in inheritance.

McConnell expects to issue a written decision in the insurance case in the coming weeks.

kmulvane@providencejournal.com

@kmulvane

(401)277-7417

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