How cruise ships use the fine print to protect themselves from coronavirus lawsuits
- At least 22 lawsuits have been filed against Carnival-owned companies, seeking millions of dollars in damages
- Before the new coronavirus, the cruise industry had generally avoided large-scale litigation over infectious disease outbreaks at sea
After two passengers on their luxury cruise tested positive for Covid-19 in March, Emilio and Barbara Hernandez were so frantic to get off the ship, they wrote a note to the captain.
The Costa Luminosa sailed on with them still on-board, and they ended up with the virus. Now recovering, the Hernandezes and 98 fellow passengers have sued Costa Cruise Lines, a brand owned by Carnival, alleging the firm endangered passengers’ lives through negligence and bad decision-making.
A Costa spokeswoman said the company stepped up its sanitation of ships and then took action, including quarantining passengers, after it learned of the positive test results.
The Hernandezes and their fellow plaintiffs are seeking class-action status. They may have rough sailing ahead.
The tickets that cruise passengers buy resemble legal contracts, and they generally contain language barring customers from filing class-action suits – lawsuits that allow one or more plaintiffs to act on behalf of a larger group. That’s just one of several built-in legal protections in cruise tickets meant to safeguard companies against a rash of litigation that’s already arising from the coronavirus pandemic.
“These claims are enormous – nothing the industry’s seen before with so many passengers fallen sick and bringing suit,” said Martin Davies, director of the Tulane Maritime Law Centre at Tulane University Law School.