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Manhattan maritime attorney James Mercante has spent three decades on the water\u2019s worst days. Ferry collisions. Fatal sinkings. Oil spills. The kind of cases that land on the front page.<\/p>\n
Colleagues have called him \u201ctenacious\u201d and \u201cpugnacious.\u201d The description fits. Mercante comes from a family of fighters. His late father Arthur was one of boxing\u2019s most legendary referees. His brother Arthur Jr. has spent three decades in the same trade.<\/p>\n
Now, the boat-accident specialist and Garden City native has taken on a case unlike most of the hundreds of others on his r\u00e9sum\u00e9 \u2014 the Montauk Yacht Club death of Irish-born fashion designer Martha Nolan-O\u2019Slatarra.<\/p>\n
The case remains in its earliest stage. Court records show Nolan-O\u2019Slatarra\u2019s family filed a summons with notice on Aug. 4. It alleges assault and gross negligence by Christopher Durnan aboard the Ripple, a vessel docked at the Montauk Yacht Club, on Aug. 4 and 5, 2025.<\/p>\n
The claim seeks damages for Nolan-O\u2019Slatarra\u2019s wrongful death and the pain and suffering she endured before it. It demands a default-judgement of $50 million if Durnan fails to respond.<\/p>\n
Mercante, 68, with the Manhattan firm Gallo Vitucci Klar LLP, filed his notice of appearance on Aug. 25 \u2014 before Durnan was even served \u2014 and demanded a formal complaint within 20 days.<\/p>\n
By Sept. 3, the two sides had struck a deal: Mercante\u2019s office withdrew the demand. The complaint now isn\u2019t due until 20 days after Durnan is served and proof of service hits the court.<\/p>\n
A complaint has not yet been filed, according to court records.<\/p>\n
Nolan-O\u2019Slatarra, 33, was found dead aboard the Ripple \u2014 the yacht is owned by Durnan and the two were reportedly meeting for business \u2014 shortly after midnight on Aug. 5, 2025. An autopsy proved inconclusive, with no evidence of violence found at the time, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Last month, new details from the EMT and patient care report regarding Nolan-O\u2019Slattara\u2019s treatment and death were obtained and revealed by multiple media agencies. Also in August, the woman\u2019s family launched a tip line, marthatipline.com<\/a>, seeking information from the public.<\/p>\n Durnan, 61, an insurance executive who owns homes in Montauk, Long Beach and Palm Beach, and whose family runs Durnan Group Inc. in Rockville Centre, has not been criminally charged in Nolan-O\u2019Slatarra\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Mercante\u2019s arrival signals the case will be fought hard. He heads Gallo Vitucci Klar\u2019s Admiralty, Transportation and Marine Insurance practice.<\/p>\n He boasts nearly three decades of maritime casualty litigation, marine insurance coverage, transportation disputes. A retired U.S. Navy captain and Merchant Marine Academy grad, he now presides over the Board of Commissioners of Pilots of the State of New York \u2014 the agency that licenses the harbor pilots guiding ships into New York Harbor.<\/p>\n He has been the attorney of record representing defendants in some of the region\u2019s worst maritime tragedies: Additionally, he\u2019s litigated international piracy cases and handled a piece of the 2010 Gulf oil spill litigation. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s tenacious, pugnacious,\u201d Michael Chalos, who defended Exxon Valdez captain Joseph Hazelwood and has worked alongside Mercante on numerous cases, told Soundings Online<\/a>. As a litigant, Chalos said, he\u2019d want no one else in his corner.<\/p>\n Reached by Greater Long Island, Mercante declined to comment on the case.<\/p>\n A family built on the fight game<\/p>\n The nickname trails him for a reason. His father, Arthur Mercante Sr., was among boxing\u2019s most respected referees; he was the third man in the ring for a whopping 145 world title fights over an iconic career that spanned nearly five decades.<\/p>\n He served as the refereee in the 1971 \u201cFight of the Century,\u201d when Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier \u2014 both still undefeated \u2014 went toe-to-toe for the first time at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n Two years later in Kingston, Jamaica, it was Mercante Sr. who stopped the Frazier-Foreman bout in the second round \u2014 the fight remembered for Howard Cosell\u2019s call: \u201cDown goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!\u201d<\/p>\n James Mercante\u2019s brother, Arthur Mercante Jr., who like his father was a boxer as a young man, followed their dad into the ring. His 35-plus years in the ring include working Sugar Ray Leonard\u2019s lopsided 1991 loss to Terry Norris.<\/p>\n In 1999, he was the third man for the controversial split-draw between heavyweights Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The 2012 sinking of the Kandi Won in Oyster Bay, in which three children died.
\u2022 A powerboat-barge collision at the Tappan Zee that killed two.
\u2022 The 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash that killed 11 (he represented the tugboat owner first on scene).
\u2022 The SeaStreak ferry crash in New York Harbor.<\/p>\n
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