BANGOR – A Winterport woman has sued longtime MBNA official Charles Cawley in federal court, alleging that Cawley and the company are responsible for injuries she suffered in her boat in the wake of the company’s speeding motor yacht.

Nancy Pendleton filed the suit against Cawley and MBNA Corp. in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Friday. The suit accuses the company and Cawley of negligence and asks the court for monitory damages.

Neither MBNA nor Pendleton’s attorney, Richard Silver of Bangor, responded Monday to requests for comment.

The lawsuit alleges that Pendleton was a passenger on the motor vessel Chimera when it encountered the Impatience at 11:55 a.m. Sept. 2, 2001, south of Owls Head Bay.

According to the suit, the Impatience approached the Chimera from behind and passed it to the right, or starboard, without giving a signal. Pendleton claims that Cawley was at the helm of the Impatience and that when he increased the speed of his vessel as it passed the Chimera, it caused a large swell or wake.

Pendleton alleges that when the Impatience “increased its speed,” the wake caused the Chimera to suddenly “roll violently.” The sudden pitch and roll resulted in Pendleton “being thrown about the Chimera, suffering personal injury,” according to the suit.

Pendleton alleges that Cawley operated the Impatience “in a negligent fashion, in deviation from the reasonable care standard under maritime law, and that negligence was the proximate cause” of her injuries.

Silver filed the civil suit under the federal court’s admiralty and general maritime jurisdiction. The suit contends that MBNA was “either the owner or operator” of the vessel Impatience and Cawley was “at the helm of and in control of” the Impatience the day of the Owls Head incident. The suit alleges that Cawley’s operation of Impatience “was in violation” of federal inland navigation rules.

MBNA is the nation’s second-largest credit card company and has more than 4,000 employees in Maine. Camden resident Cawley retired as its president and chief executive officer last year.

Although the suit does not detail the extent of her injuries, it contends that Pendleton suffered “personal injury resulting in medical expenses, past and future economic loss, permanent impairment and pain and suffering” as a result of the alleged negligence.

The suit asks the court to impose damages “as are reasonable in these circumstances,” along with interest and any further relief that it deems warranted.