Associate Judge Ramona V. Manglona heard the case on June 24, 2009 for the summary judgment on all claims filed by plaintiff Hideki Morita, personal representative of the estate of the victim, Megumi Morita.
The case stemmed from Megumi Morita’s death on July 16, 2005 while participating in an instructional scuba diving course conducted at the Grotto diving site on Saipan. The dive course was conducted by Scuba World Inc. doing business as Pastime Saipan.
PADI America is a national recreational diving membership organization that provides certification to divers according to the dive’s completion of educational courses developed and administered by PADI.
Megumi Morita had already completed four dives in Japan and obtained a basic PADI open water certificate.
Hideki Morita has filed a wrongful death claim for negligence against PADI.
Hideki Morita claims that the defendant is liable for the negligence of Pastime Saipan and its instructors because it was them who promoted and conducted the diving course, and that PADI is liable for allowing Pastime Saipan to deviate from PADI-authorized safety standards.
The defendant filed a motion for summary judgment together on April 6, 2009.
The defendants stated that just prior to her fatal dive, Megumi Morita signed a waiver and release of liability.
The plaintiff filed its opposition to PADI America’s motion for summary judgments on April 24, 2009 stating that the waiver and release signed by Megumi Morita is unenforceable on the basis of the commonwealth’s public policy.
The release fails to preclude plaintiff’s claims because it does not exempt PADI from liability for its own negligence, and that the doctrine of “primary assumption of the risk” is not applicable to the case, the plaintiff stated.
The defendant, in its reply, stated that the plaintiff failed to present evidence on the exact cause of the victim’s death.
The plaintiff filed a motion to strike the defendant’s arguments which was denied by the court because “the plaintiff has not been prejudiced by arguments stated in the defendant’s reply.”
The court held that the waiver and release drafted by PADI and signed by Megumi Morita contains provisions which waived her right to assume certain risks of harm related to the dive.
But to be enforceable, Manglona held that the release or waiver must be sufficiently clear and definite in its terms to shield the protected party from liability at issue, and that the release must not contradict public policy.
“These courts have determined that a voluntary sporting activity like scuba diving does not affect the public interest and that the parties involved as free to contractually limit their liabilities,” Manglona held.
The court said the Safe Diving Act does not allocate liabilities and all of its obligations are placed on the providers of commercial recreational diving tours and instructors.
Manglona stated that the enforcement of the release or waiver in this case to bar Hideki Morita’s wrongful death action would be “contrary to the purpose of the statute and would impair its effectiveness,” hence the motion for summary judgment is denied.
In conclusion, the court rules that “the waiver and release of liability signed by [Megumi] Morita on July 16, 2005 is unenforceable by PADI as a contractual limitation of liability or as a prospective waiver of plaintiff’s claims on the ground of commonwealth public policy established by the CNMI Safe Diving Act.”
Manglona said the release or waiver fails to present a complete defense to the causes of action alleged in the plaintiff’s complaint and the defendant has not shown that it is entitled to judgment.
Reports from the Department of Public Safety stated that Megumi Morita and Mayumi Fukuda, a dive instructor from Pastime Saipan, drowned at the Grotto.
Police said the incident happened as Saipan was experiencing heavy rainfall brought about by the passage of Super-typhoon Haitang in the Marianas region.
