Ask A Maritime Attorney: After leaving a maintenance visit at the boatyard, my engine overheated due to a closed cooling water intake valve. Is it the yard’s fault, and can I claim compensation?

Question:             I had bottom paint and some other work completed during a recent boatyard visit.  The other work included inspection and replacement of several thru hull seacock valves located below the waterline of my boat.  I paid the yard’s invoice in full and picked up my boat upon completion of the project.  We left the yard, but my starboard engine overheated during our short trip back to my slip.  We tracked the cause of the overheating to a closed cooling water intake valve for the engine. The engine seacock valves were regularly serviced and, as such, were not among the valves that were replaced by the yard.  But the yard closed the valve and left it closed when they launched the boat.  The fact that the valve was left in its closed position seems to me to have been an obvious case of gross negligence by the yard, and something that we should be compensated for.  Can you help? Answer The short answer here is that our reader does not appear to have a valid legal claim against his boatyard, but let’s take a closer look. First, his focus on the term“gross negligence” is misplaced.  The legal term  “gross negligence” has a very...