$50M suit planned against LI owner of Montauk yacht where fashion designer Martha Nolan-O'Slatarra died

The family of the Irish fashion designer found dead last year on a boat docked at the Montauk Yacht Club plans to file a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the insurance executive who owned the vessel, court records show.

On Tuesday, Elma Geraldine Nolan, the mother of Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra, along with a Manhattan attorney handling the designer's estate, filed a summons in Manhattan Supreme Court detailing a planned lawsuit against Christopher Durnan, 61, of Long Beach.

Durnan owns the Ripple, a 32-foot pleasure boat where Nolan-O’Slatarra was found dead.

The suit, which does not provide details of the accusations against Durnan, was filed on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Nolan-O’Slatarra's death aboard the boat, which was docked during the height of the tourist season at the tony yacht club on Star Island Road.

While Durnan has not been criminally charged with Nolan-O’Slatarra's death, the lawsuit accuses him of "intentionally and wrongfully" assaulting the designer, whose business, East x East, he had been investing in.

The summons also accuses Durnan of "reckless and wanton conduct" that caused Nolan-O’Slatarra's death.

Durnan did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did attorneys for Nolan-O’Slatarra’s family.

Drug investigation

Newsday reported last year that Suffolk County's interagency East End Drug Task Force was investigating the role drugs may have played in the death of Nolan-O’Slatarra, 33, of Manhattan.

A source told Newsday at the time that although it's "very likely" Nolan-O’Slatarra died of a drug overdose, investigators had not ruled out that the fashion designer’s death was a homicide or that she died of natural causes.

A Suffolk Police spokesperson said on Thursday there was no update on the investigation or on Nolan-O’Slatarra's cause of death.

An autopsy conducted on Nolan-O’Slatarra showed no evidence of violence, police said last year.

Durnan owns a home in Montauk and another in Palm Beach, Florida, records show. He owns Durnan Group Inc., an insurance business in Rockville Centre that focuses on workers' compensation insurance.

911 call to police

Shortly after midnight on Aug. 5, East Hampton Town Police received a 911 call from a man about an unconscious woman on a boat at the yacht club, Suffolk police said. Good Samaritans tried to render CPR to Nolan-O’Slatarra, whom first responders later pronounced dead.

Nolan-O’Slatarra had moved to New York City more than a decade ago. In 2020, she launched her first brand, Out East Eyewear, a luxury sunglasses business.

Dylan Grace, Nolan-O’Slatarra's business partner, has said the pair founded East x East in 2022. Its website describes the business as providing sustainable, unisex "resort wear" products such as sunglasses and swimsuits.

Shortly before her death, Nolan-O’Slatarra launched a beachside pop-up at Gurney’s Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa.

In a 2024 interview with the Irish Independent, Nolan-O'Slatarra said she'd been raised in the small Irish town of Carlow, attending the Institute of Education in Dublin and University College Dublin, where she studied commerce.

"I always knew I wanted to be successful, that I was money-driven, business driven and that fashion is a tough industry and it would be a slow road," she said in the interview.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.