A year after a young New York fashion designer died aboard a yacht at an exclusive Long Island club, her family has taken a formal step toward suing the boat’s owner — and the court paperwork raises a possibility that has not surfaced publicly before: that her death may not have been an accident.
Martha Nolan, an Irish-born swimwear designer who was 33, died on August 5, 2025, at a yacht club in Montauk, on the eastern end of Long Island. Twelve months later, her cause of death still has not been established. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office reportedly found no evidence of obvious trauma, and the investigation remains open. No one has been charged in connection with her death.
Now a summons obtained in New York, addressed to 60-year-old Christopher Durnan — the owner of the boat and an investor in Nolan’s company — notifies him that her family intends to file a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit. The document accuses Durnan of assault, along with gross negligence and what it describes as “reckless wanton conduct.” It states that “the defendant intentionally and wrongfully assaulted the decedent.”
Durnan has not been charged with any crime, and the allegations in the summons are unproven claims in a civil matter, not criminal charges.
A Rising Designer and Her Investor
Nolan moved from Ireland to New York in 2015 and built a career in one of the most competitive fashion markets in the country. She founded a swimwear label, East x East, reportedly in 2022, describing herself in her own promotional videos as the brand’s founder and creative director. She started small, with pop-up shops in the Hamptons, and worked her way toward the wealthy summer crowds there.
According to a lengthy New York magazine article published in November of last year, Nolan sold 13 percent of her company to Durnan to help fund its growth. He reportedly invested $250,000. The magazine reported that Durnan, a widower whose wife reportedly died by suicide in 2018, made his money selling an insurance company and had become a fixture of Hamptons summers, keeping multiple boats at the club where Nolan died.
On the night she died, the two allegedly went out for an evening cruise aboard a boat called Ripple, sipping champagne and watching the sunset before returning to the club, New York magazine reported. Members of Nolan’s family told the Daily Mail they believe Durnan may have understood the outing as a romantic encounter rather than a business meeting, noting that he had stocked the boat with Dom Pérignon. Nolan was reportedly in a relationship with a man her own age and was texting with him that night.
The nature of the relationship between Nolan and Durnan has been disputed. His attorney initially told New York magazine, “They actually dated. He had told me after it happened that he loved her and that he had met her family,” and said Durnan had visited her relatives in Ireland. Nolan’s family said that was not true. The attorney later walked the statement back, saying, “We weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend,” and declined to discuss whether the two had been intimate, saying it would not be fair to her memory.
The Timeline That Night
Durnan’s lawyer told New York magazine that the two discussed business on the water. At 9:20 p.m., a friend joked in a group text that Nolan’s phone must have died “or maybe she’s dead.” Ten minutes later, Nolan replied: “Lol, I’m at the yacht club now. My phone is on.”
Roughly an hour later — around 10:30 or 11 p.m., according to the attorney — Nolan went limp. The lawyer said Durnan described it as though she had suffered a heart attack, and that he performed CPR but does not know for how long. Police say the 911 call came in around midnight, a gap New York magazine noted leaves about an hour unaccounted for.
Witnesses who spoke to the New York Post described Durnan running for help while undressed, throwing sunscreen at neighboring boats to wake people and shouting for someone to do something. His attorney said Durnan had removed his clothes because they were soaked in vomit.
A white powdery substance reportedly seen on the boat after police cleared the scene was fingerprint dust left by investigators, the attorney said. He also said Durnan told detectives that Nolan had excused herself twice during the evening. Nolan’s family attorney has pushed back on any suggestion she used drugs regularly, and the New York Post reported that people who knew her said the same.
After the county autopsy proved inconclusive, the family commissioned an independent examination. The Daily Mail first reported that it found trace amounts of cocaine — an amount the family says was not enough to cause an overdose and could have been ingested days earlier. The independent autopsy also reportedly found she was young and healthy, with no signs of strangulation or blunt force trauma. The New York Post, citing sources, has reported that the family’s autopsy pointed to some form of assault as the cause of death, though what that means has not been made public.
What a Civil Case Could Do
Criminal defense attorney Will Corman, speaking on Law & Crime’s “On the Case” with host Chris Stewart, said the filing signals that someone close to Nolan believes her death was not accidental. He noted the suit could serve two purposes: pursuing a claim the family believes is viable, or using civil discovery to learn what happened.
“They could want to conduct depositions,” Corman said, adding that lawyers could subpoena phone records, phone logs and computer records to determine who Durnan contacted, and when, before he began calling for help.
He stressed that no criminal case is required for a wrongful death suit to succeed, because the civil standard of proof is significantly lower than proof beyond a reasonable doubt. He also cautioned against reading much into the $50 million figure, saying some jurisdictions simply require a number on the form.
Corman said Durnan’s lawyers may seek a stay while the criminal investigation remains open, and noted such investigations can remain open indefinitely. Discovery, he added, takes a long time in any case — civil or criminal.
Durnan has roughly 20 to 30 days to respond to the summons.
