Bergen County Jury Awards $9.5 Million to Sisters Badly Hurt in Manasquan Inlet Collision

On the evening of May 22, 2009, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, Jamie and Gina Franzino of Mahwah, New Jersey, were among five friends out on a 15-foot skiff in the Manasquan Inlet, a busy waterway running between Point Pleasant Beach and Brielle. A 31-foot, 14,000-pound Boston Whaler owned by Ed McCarthy of McCarthy's Marine Sales was returning from sea trials in the Atlantic when the two vessels collided. Kyle Tanis, a 24-year-old passenger on the skiff, suffered a skull fracture and drowned. The Franzino sisters were pulled from the water in critical condition.

Jamie Franzino was hospitalized with a collapsed lung, a broken rib, a fractured pelvis, and a concussion. Her sister Gina suffered a broken pelvis and underwent emergency surgery to remove her spleen. Physicians warned Gina she would likely need a hip replacement in the future.

The sisters filed suit against McCarthy and the operators of their own vessel, David Martinez and John Hessles. The consolidated case was tried in two phases. In January 2016, a Bergen County jury found McCarthy and Martinez liable after a liability-only trial, with Judge Charles Powers ruling that maritime joint and several liability applied. A separate damages trial followed.

Samuel L. Davis of Davis Saperstein and Salomon represented Gina Franzino at trial. The damages jury of five women and three men awarded $3.9 million to Jamie Franzino and $5.1 million to Gina Franzino, plus an additional $500,000 specifically to cover Gina's anticipated hip replacement surgery, bringing the total verdict to $9.5 million. No reduction on appeal was reported in available coverage.

The Franzino case drew attention in part because of the injury disparity between vessels: the Boston Whaler displaced nearly 30 times the weight of the small skiff and was traveling at speed following open-ocean trials when the collision occurred.