Morning Dew Widow Wins Lawsuit

Boat/US Magazine, May, 2001

A federal judge has found fault with the U.S. Coast Guard's failure to launch an adequate rescue of the stricken sailboat Morning Dew near Charleston Harbor and has awarded the skipper's widow and sister-in-law damages of $19 million.

Libby Cornett of Hiltons, VA, filed the lawsuit for $35 million following the December 29, 1997 tragedy in which her husband, Michael Cornett, 49, and their sons Michael, 16, and Daniel, 13, were killed, along with a cousin, Bobby Lee Hurd, 14. The four were offshore, moving their 34-foot sailboat, Morning Dew, south when the boat hit the jetty at the entrance to Charleston Harbor and sank.

In his 64-page opinion, U.S. District Judge David Norton wrote, "This tragedy was avoidable. It was not an angry sea or cruel weather that impeded the Coast Guard's ability to rescue Morning Dew's passengers. It was human error, the impetuous termination of a search and rescue mission approximately 30 minutes before sunrise."

An investigation after the accident revealed that Daniel Cornett radioed a mayday call at 2:17 a.m. A Coast Guard petty officer tried to return the call but got no reply; he later said he did not hear a "mayday" in the scratchy transmission. However at 6 a.m., crew on a commercial vessel entering the harbor reported to the Coast Guard that they heard cries for help from the water. A pilot boat in contact with the Coast Guard conducted a search but found nothing. The Coast Guard did not send out any units until the bodies of two of the boys were found at 11 a.m.

The Coast Guard's attorneys argued that the case should be dismissed because they had no legal obligation to launch a search. Norton, however, ruled that if a search had been conducted, the boys might have been saved. No damages were awarded for the death of the father, Michael Cornett, because it is assumed he was thrown overboard when the vessel hit the jetty and could not have been rescued.

The case has brought national attention to the Coast Guard's antiquated and often malfunctioning distress communications equipment and lack of manpower at coastal stations. The entire national distress communications network is now being upgraded for about $300 million but won't be completed until about 2006.

At presstime, the Coast Guard was considering an appeal of the decision.