News > Could 1851 maritime law that protected Titanic’s owners protect OceanGate? 

Could 1851 maritime law that protected Titanic’s owners protect OceanGate? 

With recovery efforts to collect the debris underway, the focus has turned to whether and how OceanGate could be held liable in court. The company operating the ill-fated Titan submersible could attempt to avoid legal liability by taking advantage of the one 172-year-old piece of legislation, the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, used by the owners of the doomed Titanic more than a century ago – in a tragically macabre full-circle development, according to legal experts.