Given the nature of working aboard ships, many times captains or officers require crew to undertake jobs which they are not physically suited to perform. Often times, crew members are already sick or injured, and due to short staffing, are required to continue their job duties. Our maritime attorneys have represented crew members whose doctors restricted the amount they could lift and hours they could work; however, when they returned to the ship for “restricted duty”, their employers required them to work as if no physical restrictions were ordered.
One of the first questions our maritime injury lawyers ask potential clients is whether they provided the cruise line written notice of their accident. Nearly every cruise line requires passengers to give written notice of their claim within a certain time as a condition to bring a personal injury lawsuit. The deadline to provide notice differs between cruise lines. Some require notice be given within 6 months of the accident while others require notice be given within 185 days of the accident. If you were injured during a cruise, it is crucial that you check your boarding pass to find out what procedure the cruise line requires you to follow in order to bring a lawsuit.
Sandals Resorts Cannot Force Scuba Diver it Abandoned in the Open Ocean to Litigate in Federal Court
On October 14, 2008, Sandals Resorts in Antigua abandoned multiple scuba divers in the open ocean for over 2 ½ hours when the resort’s dive boat left the dive site. The amazing fact of this case is just 8 months prior, the exact situation occurred at the same resort. That time a British couple was abandoned in the water for 5 hours. Brais & Brais filed a claim on behalf of a diver in Miami, Florida state court against Sandals for negligence as well as the Miami, Florida based travel agency Unique Vacation who booked the vacation for its failure to warn of problems with the Sandals Antigua scuba diving operation.
We have been reporting on the major cruise lines forceing their crew member employees to sign arbitration agreements. These arbitration agreements deprive crew members of having their personal injury and wages claims decided by judges and juries. Courts, however, are starting to limit the cruise lines’ ability to preclude crew members’ access to court. Claims of rape and sexual assault are such instances where courts refused to require arbitration.
On September 13, 2010, we posted an article about cruise lines’ liabilities for injuries and deaths occurring on shore excursions. Recently, a Miami, Florida Federal court determined a cruise line can be held liable for the wrongful death of a passenger during a shore excursion if the cruise line misstated the required skills, safeness and/or physical level of the tour in the cruise materials.
