A three-way flurry of lawsuits and countersuits that started flying soon after a fatal cottage country boat crash involving reality TV celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary has finally been settled after six years of vigorous litigation.
“Yeah, it’s finished. Everything is in essence finished,” said Rui Fernandes, lead lawyer representing Kevin O’Leary and his wife Linda O’Leary. “It’s confidential, sorry,” he said when asked for details. “You’re never going to find out because it’s confidential, right?”
A portion of the negotiated settlement, however, has peeked out from under the cloak of secrecy.
What is known is that the total payout from both boat operators involved in the collision to all the 14 claimants could not have exceeded a combined $2 million; no single operator paid more than half of that; and two of the claimants — both children seeking damages for the death of their mother — were each paid $100,000 minus a $25,000 cut paid to their lawyers, not including taxes and fees.
That is significantly less than amounts initially sought in several multi-million-dollar claims.
The settlement ends all lawsuits, third-party claims, and notices of claim in all courts that were filed after a horrific scene surrounded by some of the most luxurious vacation property in Canada.
It was a dark, moonless night in the summer of 2019 on Lake Joseph when O’Leary was a passenger in a speedboat driven by Linda, his wife. The couple were returning to their lakeside cottage from a neighbour’s dinner party when it collided with a larger pontoon boat.
The other boat, owned by Dr. Irv Edwards, a physician in Los Angeles who owned two cottages on Lake Joseph, had 12 people aboard out stargazing after a different party and was being driven by Richard Ruh, a doctor from Buffalo, N.Y., who rented a cottage from Edwards.
Two people who were lying down at the front of the pontoon facing the sky were killed when the O’Leary’s boat hit the prow: Suzanne Brito, 48, from Uxbridge, Ont., and Gary Poltash, 64, of Florida.
Afterwards, police charged the drivers of both boats.
Ruh had taken the wheel of the pontoon boat from Edwards and was charged with failing to exhibit a stern light on a power vessel underway; he did not contest the charge and was convicted.
Linda O’Leary was charged with operating a vessel in a careless manner and pleaded not guilty. After 13 days of evidence at her trial in 2021, she was found not guilty. The judge ruled the larger boat had turned its lights off to allow passengers to gaze at the night sky and was stationary at the time of the collision. The O’Leary boat had its navigation lights on.
Kevin O’Leary was the only defence witness to testify at her trial. He said the larger boat was in complete darkness before the crash: “That boat was invisible,” he testified, “and we went right into it. It was chaos. We didn’t know what happened.”
Determining the criminal facts did not decide the civil matters, however. Civil cases run on a different course with different standards of proof.
Wrongful death and injury lawsuits were filed in Ontario courts in the months following the collision against both boaters. There were 14 claimants from among the pontoon boat passengers or their families, including Brito’s young children, her parents, brother and sister; and Poltash’s family, including adult children.
The claims of Brito’s children — aged 12, 11, and nine at the time — alleged negligence in the operation of both boats resulting in the death of their mother and sought damages for loss of guidance, care and companionship, loss of dependency and loss of services.
The O’Leary’s also sued, jointly claiming more than $3 million for economic loss, pain, suffering, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life.
The Federal Court, which decides marine law, took precedence and the Ontario court matters were put on hold while the Federal Court heard a series of claims and motions.
In 2022, a Federal Court judge ordered that both sets of boat owners and operators — namely the O’Learys for one boat and Edwards and Ruh for the other — had limited liability of $1 million each under the Marine Liability Act, meaning that any potential damages from a future liability finding could not exceed that amount against either boater.
That capped a total top amount to answer all claims from the collision for all parties against both boats at $2 million. The ruling did not assess or decide any culpability.
The move to Federal Court also prevented claimants from seeking punitive damages for any alleged conduct that a jury might have considered.
After feisty and sometimes acrimonious interactions, the parties eventually negotiated a settlement, but it required involvement of the Federal Court because Brito’s children were under the age of 18.
Normally, no part of such a privately arrived at settlement agreement would be public, but because a judge needed to approve the children’s portion of the deal to protect their interests, some parts were filed in court.
A decision on that matter, and on a request to have the court file sealed from public view, was released last week. By the time of the decision by Federal Court judge Elizabeth Heneghan, one of Brito’s children had turned 18, leaving only two minors to deal with.
Heneghan assessed the settlement amount of $100,000 to each minor dependent and the $25,000 in legal fees being claimed by lawyers for the children.
By the time legal fees, pro-rated costs, taxes and fees were added and deducted to the various subtotals, each child was given $72,538.56, which is to be held by the court until they turn 18.
Heneghan ruled that was reasonable given the liability cap, that parties denied liability and that without a settlement everyone faced a litigation process that would be “lengthy and time-consuming, with no certain outcome.” She also denied the requested sealing order.
A lawyer for the children told court that had their claims gone to trial, there was a possibility liability would be found against one boat only, reducing the amount of money available to answer claims.
“I am very limited on what I can say on this,” Patrick Brown, lawyer for most of the Brito claimants, including the children, told National Post when asked about the settlement. “There will not be any more pending civil cases,” he said.
“You would hope that litigation moves at a quicker pace, but there were a lot of moving parts. I think when you’re dealing with any matters like this, closure is always important to family members,” Brown said.
Fernandes, who represented the O’Learys, said all parties agreed that the settlement should be confidential. Fernandes would not say whether his clients paid out in the settlement or, if they did, how much.
“What I’m saying to you is somebody paid and one boat owner or both boat owners could limit liability to a million each. But it doesn’t mean that each paid a million. It doesn’t mean that one paid a million, because that’s confidential.”
He agreed with Brown that it is good to conclude the cases.
“I can’t comment on the O’Learys specifically, but I know in all litigation, and I know in this case, everybody’s happy that it’s over. It’s a long time, right, to be dealing with it. I think everyone, all the parties, are happy that it’s over.”
Lawyers representing Edwards and Ruh did not respond to requests for comment from National Post prior to publishing deadline. Lawyers representing other claimants did not respond.
Kevin O’Leary came to wide public attention as a celebrity investor on the reality TV series Dragons’ Den and has since reprised that role on Shark Tank for U.S. television. He is also a former candidate for the leadership of the federal Conservative party and often appears on TV news as a commentator.
The 71-year-old recently made a feature film debut playing a cutthroat empresario in Marty Supreme, a movie starring Timothée Chalamet as a frenetic prodigy in the 1950s world of underground table tennis.
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