M/Y Loon Case Update: Crew File Response to Capt. Paul Clarke’s Motion to Dismiss

Natalia Niznik and Klara Holubova, former crewmembers on board M/Y Loon, filed a response to Capt. Paul Reid Clarke’s motion to dismiss their lawsuit against him for negligence. M/Y Loon’s tender, Reel Wild, collided with rocks after a celebratory luncheon on the northern coast of Saint Barthélemy on Dec. 21, 2024. Clarke was reportedly operating Reel Wild during this trip when he allegedly abandoned the vessel’s helm and left the tender to cruise at a speed of between 48 to 51 miles per hour in total darkness before it collided with the coast. This collision ejected Niznik and she landed on the rocks, sustaining injuries to her face, leg, and jaw. Holubova was thrown from the vessel’s interior to the aft during the collision, sustaining injuries to her knee, leg, and ear.

Clarke filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on May 5, 2025, stating that Niznik and Holubova’s complaint should be dismissed due to a lack of jurisdiction over Clarke. His motion to dismiss states that the suit’s allegations are not sufficient jurisdictional facts to bring him within Florida’s long-arm statute since he is not a citizen of the United States, does not reside in Florida, does not personally own property in Florida, does not individually carry on business in Florida, has not caused personal injury or property damage in Florida, and the events in the lawsuit occurred in Saint Barthélemy. 

Niznik and Holubova, represented by Moore & Company of Coral Gables, Florida, submitted their response to this motion to dismiss today, stating that Clarke’s assertions are inaccurate and maintaining that he was a resident of Florida at the time of the incident and for quite some time before. 

Niznik and Holubova’s response includes multiple submitted documents presented as evidence to support this claim, including: 

–   A screenshot on June 20, 2025, of Clarke’s Facebook profile that declares he lives in Fort Lauderdale.

–   Documents of five different active companies that list Clarke’s residence as the U.S. from Companies House, a company information database from the United Kingdom.

–   Various Florida-issued licenses that list a P.O. Box at a UPS store located less than a mile from Clarke’s home in Florida.

–   A 2017 traffic infraction court record that uses the address on his driver’s license.

–   A Florida fishing license issued on Sept. 14, 2023, with the same Florida address.

–   An annual report filed with the Florida Secretary of State on Jan. 21, 2025, states he owns his home through a Florida corporation called “UNVUS 401” and lists his address as a Broward County address. However, this filing was amended eight days later, which Niznik and Holubova’s complaint states was likely an attempt to shield himself further, but the amendment made the sole owner of UNVUS 401 another holding company — PRC Maritime Holdings Limited, A BVI Company. However, the complaint states the sole director of PRC Maritime is Clarke and the insertion of two layers of corporate formality between him and his apartment does not negate that he lives and treats the apartment as his personal residence.

–   Multiple declarations from former M/Y Loon crewmembers in support of Niznik and Holubova’s response and that declare that they believe Clarke resided in Fort Lauderdale when he was not on board M/Y Loon and that Clarke represented his apartment to be his home in Broward County. These crewmembers include Courtney Dalziel, Dean Harrison, Rigard Smit, Sonja Ingram, and Tristan Welby-Cooke, in addition to Niznik and Holubova.

–   Dalziel, Smit, Ingram, and Welby-Cook all state that they had been invited to and visited Clarke’s apartment. Welby-Cook and Ingram state that they have picked up personal belongings of his or packages that had arrived there before, while Smit states that he delivered Clarke’s personal belongings from Loon to his apartment after Clarke was terminated.

–   Niznik and Holubova both state that Clarke often invited other crew to his home for social events. Niznik states that Clarke invited her to stay in his home after she was released from the hospital in Broward County on Dec. 29, 2024, following her injuries in Reel Wild’s collision, but she declined. Clarke invited her again to a New Year’s Eve celebration at his home in December 2024 as well, but she declined again.

–   A return of service document from the process server stating that she served Clarke with a copy of a Civil Action Summons and Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial at the same Florida address in person.

–   Links to videos and articles interviewing Clarke where he demonstrated his ties to Florida, including an interview by Aquaholic where he states, “my house in Fort Lauderdale…” 

Niznik and Holubova’s response to Clarke aims to prove that he is a Florida resident so that he can be tried in a Florida court, based on several decisions made in past cases. Their response states that Florida residence is established by “an actual presence in Florida coupled with an intention at that time to make Florida the residence,” as established by previous Florida case law. 

Their response also claims that evidence of a person’s driver’s license and other similar records sufficiently corroborates a Florida residency finding, as established by previous Florida case law. Finally, they claim that Florida courts give substantial weight to the subjective intent of an individual. Previous cases have established, “. . . our courts have consistently recognized that an individual’s intent is a subjective factor, and therefore, ‘the best proof of one’s domicile is where he says it is,” and “. . . legal residence consists of the concurrence of both fact and intention. The bona fides of the intention is a highly significant factor.”  

Their response to Clarke states that given their list of evidence, his publicly stated intention, and that he was served process in Florida, he legally resided in Florida and is thus subject to the personal jurisdiction of Florida’s court and that his motion should be denied.

Images by Le Journal de Saint-Barth.

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