Stormy legal seas for Lake Michigan 7

They lived through a nightmare together.

Seven people -- a six-person group from Nova Communications in Geneva and Waukegan charter boat Captain Jason Lee -- survived a freak storm that sank their chartered fishing boat in Lake Michigan in 2008

They spent 45 minutes floating in turbulent 48-degree water, which caused them all to suffer severe hypothermia, until a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter arrived and lifted them to safety one by one using a dangling basket.

Afterward, there was joy and gratitude among the survivors. They praised each other's actions during the crisis, and many hailed Lee as a hero for alerting authorities to their exact location in the lake before the 37-foot fishing boat sank.

The group held reunions and had T-shirts made identifying themselves as the “Lake Michigan 7,” adding the words, “By God's grace ... we go on.”

Now, 2½ years later, most of the Lake Michigan 7 are no longer friends and all have hired lawyers.

Each of the six passengers on the boat that day is suing Lee and his one-man business, Fin Seeker Charters, alleging that his negligence caused the boat to sink. They're all seeking unspecified damages.

Also since the May 30, 2008 incident, everyone has left Nova Communications except owner Jim Emma, and most on bad terms.

Emma says it's because his business was struggling during the recession and he was forced to cut everyone's pay back to 32 hours a week, which they weren't happy about.

Emma also split with his girlfriend, Cynthia Vacek, who had joined them on the boat that day.

Most of the passengers, on the advice of their lawyers, declined to comment on the case.

Emma stressed this isn't the story of a happy family whose members turned against one another, just people trying to recoup their losses from Lee's insurance company.

Emma estimates he had “tens of thousands of dollars” in lost work time, medical bills, and personal items he lost, including his cell phone and camera.

“Everyone joined the lawsuit because they had some losses,” Emma said. “Hindsight is 20/20 ... a lot of people felt there was wrongdoing on the captain's part and he was liable. I can't myself personally be mad at Jason Lee. He made some mistakes, but he did some things that saved our lives ... I just wish we wouldn't have had to go through what we all went through.”

While Emma insists the lawsuits aren't personal, Lee doesn't see it that way.

Lee called them a sign of “the society we live in,” and the lifelong fisherman says he knows in his heart he did everything he could to save everyone during the rare weather condition known as a “wake low,” which weather experts likened to a mini-tornado.

“I'm definitely disappointed that they would do something like this. They saw me on the boat and knew I did the best I could. I went down with the boat. I was the last one off. I was on the boat giving coordinates (to the U.S. Coast Guard) when it sank. I did what I could to save their lives,” said Lee, who now lives in Decatur with his wife and newborn baby in the retirement community where he's employed as an activity director.

Lee says he still has nightmares about that day and is traumatized by what happened, just like everyone else.

“(Emma) doesn't have to sue me for this because he's having tough times,” Lee said.

The Fin Seeker remains under 70 feet of water at the bottom of Lake Michigan, about 2 miles off Waukegan Harbor. The U.S. Coast Guard estimated the value of the boat at roughly $31,000.

Lawyers get involved

The first legal proceedings came five months after the incident, when Lee and Fin Seeker Charters or the insurance company acting on Lee's behalf filed a complaint to exonerate or limit Lee's liability.

While it's a standard procedure, it meant each passenger received a summons and had to hire an attorney to respond. After more than a year in court, Lee's limited liability case was dismissed.

The first passenger to file a negligence lawsuit against Lee and Fin Seeker Charters was Vacek, in February 2009, roughly nine months after the boat went under.

Nova Communications and passengers Jim Emma, Gail Burke, Gary Grandgeorge and Brian LaValliere jointly filed their complaint 10 months later, on Dec. 31, 2009; passenger Tom Brown followed with his lawsuit in May 2010.

The cases are all still in the early stages, the attorneys said.

The lawsuits accuse Lee of making a number of critical mistakes that day and the lawyers say the U.S. Coast Guard's investigation supports them.

One of the key mistakes the lawsuits allege is that Lee didn't hear the National Weather Service's emergency warnings about the approaching storm, which were broadcast an hour before the boat sank.

The U.S. Coast Guard report says the warning was broadcast at 10:38 a.m., and the boat sank 2 miles off the coast at 11:45 a.m.

“It could have been avoided, and should have been avoided,” said attorney Jeff Asperger, who represents Vacek. “How can it be said that (Lee) is a hero, when it was sheer luck, under the circumstances, that no one died?”

While the special marine warning urged boaters to seek safe harbor immediately, attorneys for the plaintiffs claim Lee worried about his equipment first and wasted precious time reeling in fishing lines and putting things away rather than immediately steering the boat toward the harbor.

“No equipment is as valuable as human life. You don't work to save people's belongings. You act to save people's lives,” Asperger said.

Lee's attorney declined to comment on the case.

Lee, who said his attorney didn't want him discussing the case, said only that he strongly disagrees with the Coast Guard report, which also critiques him for not having high-water alarms on the boat, not giving the passengers a safety briefing before departure, and not having a deck hand on board to assist him.

“Having an assistant on the boat wouldn't have kept the boat from sinking. Believe me,” Lee said.