<\/p>\n
If a ruling Monday by a Los Angeles federal judge is followed by others, it could offer the cruise line something of a safe harbor under the Death on the High Seas Act. The century-old federal law limits payouts for survivors to \u201cpecuniary\u201d damages such as how much the deceased contributed through wages or housework. One maritime lawyer said that in the case of retirees, who make up a large portion of Carnival\u2019s customers, the recovery may amount to little more than burial costs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The subject of the ruling was a 71-year-old man who died in April after allegedly contracting Covid-19 while cruising on the Coral Princess. His family was trying to keep its wrongful-death lawsuit in state court, where they were seeking punitive damages as well as recovery for other losses. But the judge said the only way to proceed was under federal law.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The ruling comes as Carnival and other major cruise lines including Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. are seeking a nod from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to return to sailing after the CDC\u2019s \u201cno sail\u201d order expires at the end of the month. The industry, one of the most heavily battered by the virus, is putting in place new rules to entice vacationers back onto its boats, announcing through a trade group this week that it will require Covid-19 tests for guests and crew. Masks will be mandatory whenever social distancing isn\u2019t possible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Carnival\u2019s Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. declined to comment on pending litigation. Shares in the company were up by as much as 4.44% after markets opened in New York and had leveled to $14.53 at 10:35 a.m. Before Wednesday, the stock had declined 72% this year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cPrincess Cruises has been sensitive to the difficulties the Covid-19 outbreak has caused to our guests and crew,\u201d spokesperson Negin Kamali said in an email. \u201cOur response throughout this process has focused on the well-being of our guests and crew within the parameters dictated to us by the government agencies involved and the evolving medical understanding of this new illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Princess Cruise Lines already scored a significant victory in another case by convincing a judge that mere exposure to Covid-19 doesn\u2019t give passengers grounds to sue for emotional distress.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the case in which the court ruled Monday, the family of Wilson Maa tried to argue that the federal law didn\u2019t apply because he died after returning to shore \u2014 not while at sea.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer agreed with Carnival\u2019s argument that where he died was irrelevant because the alleged negligence occurred \u201con the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from the shore of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is clear from the face of the complaint,\u201d the judge wrote in Monday\u2019s ruling, that the deceased passenger \u201ccontracted Covid-19 on the \u2018high seas.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lawyers for Maa\u2019s estate didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, the question to the widow is, \u2018What did it cost you to lose your husband?\u2019\u201d said Charles Naylor, a lawyer who specializes in maritime injury and death. \u201c\u2018If it didn\u2019t cost you anything, we don\u2019t owe you a nickel.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Naylor, who in his own practice is not taking on Covid-19 cases, said the 1920 law is \u201cvery out of step with modern wrongful-death statutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Naylor said that if the ruling survives a likely appeal, the vast majority of Covid-19 cases among cruise line passengers will proceed under the 1920 law, \u201cwhich will strictly limit the damages.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In another Los Angeles case over the virus outbreak on the Coral Princess, a North Carolina passenger contends Carnival had detailed knowledge of the threat posed by a contagion, but jeopardized public health when the ship \u201cseeded the shores of California\u201d with infected passengers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That passenger says in her recently filed revised complaint that the Coral Princess has had \u201csignificant viral outbreaks at least eight times since 2004.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The wrongful-death case is Maa v. Carnival Corp. & Plc, 20-cv-6341, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2020 Bloomberg L.P.<\/em><\/p>\n gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If a ruling Monday by a Los Angeles federal judge is followed by others, it could offer the cruise line something of a safe harbor under the Death on the High Seas Act. The century-old federal law limits payouts for survivors to \u201cpecuniary\u201d damages such as how much the deceased contributed through wages or housework. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3284,1369,1505,4104,1751,1426,11612,2471],"class_list":["post-18207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-act","tag-bottom","tag-carnival","tag-death","tag-high","tag-line","tag-protects","tag-seas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/18208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}