 If they did, those lawsuits might have less chance of succeeding, due to the outcome of similar actions against the state brought by the families of victims of the 2005 "Ethan Allen" accident, where a small tour boat on Lake George capsized in the wake of a bigger one, killing 20.The NTSB had later faulted state regulators for not reducing the boat's passenger capacity; however the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, had dismissed the suit, holding that the facts of the case did not create an exception to the state's sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine under which governments it applies to can be sued only if they allow themselves to be.A lawyer who had represented some of those victims, and had been retained by two of the families of limousine crash victims, told the "Times Union" that the state's more direct role in regulating Prestige might result in a different verdict.