OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The State Supreme Court says the father of a woman who drowned after inhaling carbon monoxide fumes from a boat is not entitled to emotional distress damages.

In a 5-3 ruling, the high court says that Jay Colbert, of Bonney Lake, cannot collect from the company that manufactured the boat. The court says he does not fall within an identified class of claimants who are entitled to such damages for the 2003 death of his 21-year-old daughter, Denise.

Justice Barbara Madsen led the majority and was joined by Justices Susan Owens, Mary Fairhurst, James M. Johnson and Justice Pro Tem Bobbe Bridge in the decision.

Denise Colbert and several friends took a boat out on Lake Tapps in August 2003. She and several of the friends jumped off the boat and started to swim to shore. When they realized the shore was farther away than they had estimated, Marc Jacobi, the boat's owner and driver, moved the boat along side them and drove slowly toward shore while the swimmers held onto the boat's rear platform, according to the ruling.

The practice of hanging on to the platform while a boat is moving is known as "teak surfing" and in 2006, in response to the Colbert's death and that of another woman who died the same way, a measure banning the practice was passed into law.

But Jay Colbert's attorney, William Scherer, said Denise wasn't teak surfing, but was alternately swimming and hanging on to the swim platform while the boat drifted in the water, and then while swimming back to shore with friends, slipped under the water.