Lawyers In Nathan Carman Insurance Case Meet With Magistrate

Aug. 07--Attorneys in the insurance dispute involving Nathan Carman's boat met behind closed doors with a federal magistrate Monday to discuss in part whether the disappearance of Carman's mother and the unsolved killing of his grandfather can be brought into the case.

The attorneys and U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Sullivan met for about 45 minutes. Lawyers for neither Carman nor the insurance company seeking to avoid paying him for the loss of his boat would comment. Carman did not appear at the courthouse.

Carman's attorneys have objected to bringing the 2013 unsolved killing of Carman's grandfather, John Chakalos, into the insurance case, arguing it is beyond the scope of the case.

National Liability & Fire Insurance Co. is seeking a court ruling to avoid paying Carman for the loss of his boat, which sank with him and his mother aboard last September. In court filings, insurance company attorney David Farrell wrote that Carman's potential "criminal wrongdoing" could bar his insurance claim.

Nathan and his mother, Linda Carman, were reported missing Sept. 18 while on a fishing trip after leaving from South Kingstown, R.I. Nathan Carman's boat sank and his mother is presumed dead. He was rescued at sea.

Carman's grandfather, John Chakalos, was shot and killed in 2013. Police have said Nathan Carman was a suspect in that case but he has not been charged. Nathan Carman's aunts have asked a court to declare him his grandfather's killer to bar him from getting any of Chakalos' estate.

"His actions/inactions regarding his mother's death are within the scope of discovery as relevant to the sinking ... as is his grandfather's unsolved homicide," Farrell wrote in court papers.

David Anderson, Carman's attorney, has argued against bringing the disappearance of Carman's mother and death of his grandfather into the case.

"You have not alleged that Nathan intended to sink the vessel and/or kill his mother or that he killed his grandfather several years ago," Anderson wrote in an email to Farrell that is included in the court file.

National Liability & Fire Insurance Co. and Boat Owners Association of the United States have asked for a declaratory judgment and are refusing to pay the $85,000 policy that Nathan Carman had on the boat.

Nathan Carman was deposed on Dec. 16 and told lawyers that on the morning of the fishing trip his mother and he got to Block Canyon near Martha's Vineyard about 7 a.m. and started trolling north at 4 to 6 knots per hour. Carman said they fished for about five hours before he realized that the bilge was flooded.

Carman said "he turned off the boat and powered it down." But by then the water was "up to the battery boxes and only about three inches below the deck."

Carman said he asked his mother to bring in the lines which she acknowledged but he never spoke to her or saw her again. Nathan Carman was rescued eight days later by a passing freighter off the coast of Martha's Vineyard after being found floating in an emergency raft. Linda Carman is presumed dead.

The insurance report concluded that Nathan Carman failed to take three opportunities to make a distress call on his VHF radio or take an emergency beacon from its cradle and activate it.

Multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating Linda Carman's disappearance. They have obtained search warrants for Nathan Carman's vehicle, cellphone and Vermont home. In those documents, they indicate they are investigating whether to charge him with "operating [a boat] so as to endanger, resulting in death."

The insurance company hired a naval architect and a marine surveyor to assess the alterations to the boat. As a result, the insurance company canceled Carman's policy and refuse to pay his claim. It was the naval architect's opinion, according to the filing, that Carman's repair of the holes near the waterline was inadequate, and the surveyor found that Carman's alterations to the boat affected its structural integrity.

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