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LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — Two families of Seacor crew members have filed suits against the companies that employed their loved ones.

Hannah Daspit is the wife of Dylan Daspit. Krista Vercher is the fiance of Jay Guevara. Their attorney alleges Seacor Marine LLC, Seacor Liftboats LLC, and Talos Energy LLC put profit before lives.

Both men are from a group of seven men still missing from the vessel which capsized in the Gulf of Mexico April 13 eight miles off the coast of Port Fourchon.

In all, 19 people were on the boat, six were rescued and so far, six have been found dead.

  • Dylan Daspit
  • Jay Guevara

In the first lawsuit, eight pages paint quite the picture of what Hannah Daspit and her young children are going through. It calls Dylan Daspit deceased even though his body hasn’t been found. Neither have six of his other crewmates.

The Hannah Daspit versus Seacor Marine and Talos Energy lawsuit puts the blame for a horrific tragedy solely at the feet of the two companies. Spagnoletti Law Firm claims both companies knew the risks of taking a vessel under repairs to sea in dangerous weather conditions.

“They (Talos) say it was Seacor’s fault, and Seacor blames the captain. Okay, and what is the captain supposed to do? Blame the men on the deck because they didn’t see the weather coming? Give me a break. The buck stops at the top,” argued Frank Spagnoletti, the Daspit and Guevara families’ attorney.

Spagnoletti has 40 years of maritime law experience and said more lawsuits are coming soon.

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“The reason they had to bring the lawsuit is because they are going to be sued by Seacor probably in the very near future,” Spagnoletti warned. “They are going to file something called the limitations of liability statute,” he added.

The Limitation statute allows vessel owners to limit or restrict liability owed to the injured or killed to the value of the vessel, but Spagnoletti says that can’t be compared to what the crew and families are suffering, so they are seeking $25,000,000 in damages.

“Money can’t compensate for what you lose, but the only blood there is in a corporation is money. It’s their blood, and so it has to be serious enough that it gets their attention to let them know that we’re coming for them hard,” Spagnoletti said.

The family stressed even more important than the money is causing lasting change through rewriting laws that give companies loopholes, and ensuring no man or woman goes offshore again without wearing a personal GPS tracker, so families like the Daspit’s don’t have to search out of their own pocket.

“If you can track an iPad, you should be able to track a human being if they’re working for you offshore. Why haven’t you done that? The technology is there. It’s because you just didn’t think about it, and if you don’t think about their safety, you don’t care about their safety,” Spagnoletti concluded.

To read the full lawsuit, clickhere.