Carnival Cruise Line must pay US$300,000 to a former passenger after a federal jury in South Florida found that the corporate was negligent in serving a girl a minimum of 14 shots of tequila in an eight and a half hour period before she fell down stairs and suffered a possible traumatic brain injury.
The Miami federal jury decided in favour of Diana Sanders, a 45-year-old nurse from Vacaville, Calif, and awarded her $300,000 (about $411,315 CAD) in damages, in response to the Miami Herald.
“This was an aggressively defended case that would have, and may have, settled years ago,” Sanders’ lawyer Spencer Aronfeld said in an email to Global News. “At trial, Diana took full responsibility for her consumption of alcohol; Carnival refused to take any corporate responsibility for serving her 15 shots of tequila (between 15 and 30 ounces) in only over eight hours.”
“That is an amount that Carnival’s own literature acknowledges can result in coma or death. The human body can only metabolize roughly one ounce of alcohol per hour. Although Diana was visibly inebriated and badly intoxicated, the servers continued to supply drink after drink after drink,” Arnofeld added.
Arnofeld said that Sanders was “visibly inebriated” and “badly intoxicated” as “the servers continued to supply drink after drink.”
“Ultimately, she passed out, fell down a flight of stairs, and was found unconscious within the crew area. She suffered a head injury, bruising and PTSD,” he continued. “She has no recollection of how she got there, and Carnival ‘failed to save lots of’ the crucial CCTV footage of her from the time she left the Casino Bar until she was found half-hour later, five decks below.”
Arnofeld hopes the decision “will encourage Carnival and all cruise lines to rethink and restructure their all-inclusive drink packages, which we imagine encourage each over-consumption and the over-service of alcohol.”
A Carnival Corporation spokesperson told Global News on Thursday that it respectfully disagrees with the decision and believes there are grounds for a brand new trial and appeal, which it’ll to pursue.
According to the lawsuit, Sanders was a passenger aboard the Carnival Radiance on Jan. 5, 2024, when she was served a minimum of 14 tequila shots between roughly 2:59 p.m. and 11:37 p.m.
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Carnival Cruise Line’s Cheers! drink package limits guests to a maximum of 15 alcoholic drinks per 24-hour period, starting from 6 a.m.
Sanders experienced a fall sometime between 11:45 p.m. and 12:20 a.m. that caused her to suffer a concussion, headaches, a possible traumatic brain injury, back injuries, tailbone injuries, bruising and other injuries, in response to the grievance.
The jury agreed with Sanders’ argument that Carnival’s crew members had an obligation to exercise reasonable take care of the protection of its passengers, including “the responsibility … to supervise and/or assist passengers aboard the vessel who Carnival knew, or must have known, were engaging, or were likely to interact in behavior potentially dangerous to themselves or others abroad the vessel,” the Miami Herald reports.
When asked what percentage of Sanders’ injury was attributable to either side, the jury decided 60 per cent was Carnival’s fault, with the opposite 40 per cent on Sanders.
Aronfeld said jurors were presented with evidence of half-hour of missing surveillance video from the time Sanders left the Casino bar until she was found unconscious in a crew-only area.
Sanders’ lawyers also argued that after she became visibly intoxicated on the ship, the Carnival bartenders must have stopped serving her.
Through the 17 months of legal proceedings, Carnival attempted to dismiss the lawsuit, suggesting that Sanders “fails to discover any crew member who over-served her or which bar she consumed alcohol at for Carnival to have the flexibility to discover its bartenders,” in response to court filings.
“Subsequently, the over-service of alcohol count needs to be dismissed for failure to sufficiently discover a negligent worker,” the docs added.
Following the decision, Aronfeld posted a TikTok video with Sanders, explaining their experience through the case and trial.
“Waking up after blacking out and going to the crew and asking them for help and asking them to inform me what happened was extremely frustrating. They gave me conflicting information. They treated me like a criminal. I used to be very concerned that they wouldn’t tell me exactly what happened to me,” Sanders said.
When the jury returned the decision in Sanders’ favour, she said it “felt amazing.”
Sanders’ lawyer said that “over-service of alcohol cases are extremely difficult.”
“Passengers have a responsibility to drink responsibly. But cruise lines even have a responsibility to serve responsibly and whenever you serve any person who’s visibly intoxicated, repeatedly drink after drink after drink, it may result in disastrous consequences,” Aronfeld said.
In a separate case that continues to be ongoing, the fiancée of a person who died on a cruise ship filed a wrongful death lawsuit last 12 months against Royal Caribbean, alleging it negligently served him a minimum of 33 alcoholic drinks and was accountable for his death after crew members tackled him to the bottom and stood on him with their full body weight.
Passenger Michael Virgil, 35, was detained by security in December 2024 after he allegedly physically assaulted crew members and threatened other passengers in a drunken rage aboard the Navigator of the Seas.
Accusations in regards to the events leading as much as his death say cruise ship staff “negligently” over-served Virgil alcoholic drinks “in a matter of hours,” though he was clearly intoxicated, in response to court documents filed in Miami, where the cruise company relies, CBS News reported.
In response to the lawsuit, he became agitated after getting lost while attempting to locate his cabin. He was confronted by security staff who reportedly tackled him to the bottom, subduing him “with their full body weight.”
In video footage obtained by Fox, Virgil appeared to try and kick down a door to a room where a crew member was hiding, screaming profanities, before being held down by security.
On the request of the captain, Royal Caribbean crew injected Virgil with haloperidol, a medical-grade substance used to treat psychosis. Virgil was also pepper sprayed, the lawsuit says.
The daddy “ultimately died within the care of Royal Caribbean staff and crew members,” it added.
In a press release given shortly after the incident, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson said an investigation was ongoing: “We’re saddened by the passing of one in all our guests. We offered support to the family and are working with authorities on their investigation.”
— With files from Global News’ Rachel Goodman and The Associated Press