Estate of another capsize victim sues boat operator, tour company

12/10/2005

DETROIT - The estate of a second suburban Toledo woman killed in the Oct. 2 capsize and sinking of an upstate New York tour boat has filed a federal lawsuit in Detroit against the boat's operator and a tour company that arranged the trip.

The lawsuit against Shoreline Cruise Inc. and Shore Charters and Tours Inc., filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, claims compensation exceeding $75,000 for the death of JoAnn Manore of Bedford Township, one of 20 people killed when the tour boat Ethan Allen overturned on Lake George in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

Mrs. Manore was one of six people from the Bedford Senior Citizens Center who died in the accident.

They were part of a tour group organized by a seniors' center in Trenton, Mich.

The law firm filing the suit, Olsman, Mueller & James, P.C., of Berkley, Mich., filed a similar claim in the same court last week on behalf of the estate of Beverly Becker, 78, of Bedford Township.

The other Bedford-based tour participants who died were Joyce Rochowiak, Viola Urbaniak, and Virginia Ciesinski, all of Bedford Township, and Wilma LeJeune, of Toledo.

Both the Manore and Becker lawsuits contend that the Ethan Allen was operated unsafely and not tested for stability after it was renovated in 1997. With 47 passengers and one crewman aboard, the Ethan Allen capsized when it struck another boat's wake shortly after leaving its dock.