Resort Injury Lawyer Blog

Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-FL) said in the release that "The Costa Concordia tragedy is a wakeup call for the United States and international maritime organizations to carefully review and make certain we have in place all appropriate standards to ensure passengers' safety on cruise ships." He said that "The Committee will review the events of this specific incident, current safety measures and training requirements set by law and international maritime transportation agreements to ensure this mode of transportation remains as safe as possible."

Mica stated that the tragedy appeared to be preventable and the hearing is an effort to prevent such tragedies in the future. Current U.S. laws and regulations will be reviewed in relation to vessels at U.S. ports and in U.S. waters but they do not necessarily apply to Americans cruising internationally. The United Nations Agency that regulates international shipping, the International Maritime Organization, will review the details of the recent tragedy and the current international maritime safety treaty, the Safety of Life at Sea Convention.

Two U.S. law firms are filing class-action lawsuits against Costa Cruises, asking for at least $160,000 per passenger involved in last week's resort tort disaster, according to the BBC. The shipwreck left 11 people dead, hundreds injured, and 21 still missing.

Owned by Miami-based Carnival Group, Costa Cruises blamed the captain of the Costa Concordia for veering off course and crashing into a rock, causing the ship to half sink. The captain has denied the charges of suspected manslaughter, for which he remains under house arrest.

A civil claim is being filed against him in Italy while lawsuits will reportedly be filed in Miami this week against Costa Cruises, with claimants seeking compensation for "continued medical care, loss of earnings as well as the psychological impact they had suffered while trying to get off the ship," reports the BBC. Liability against the company will point to regular route deviations in the past, lack of safeguards on board, and the alarm system.

More than 100 claimants are expected to seek two to three times the minimum claim and some as much as one million Euros.

Costa Cruises is currently focused on managing the immediate urgencies of the disaster but a spokesperson stated that the company has asked passengers to detail their expenses so that they can be reimbursed. Rescue efforts for the missing continue with caution as the ship continues to sink. Fuel tanks are full and could potentially rupture, contaminating the Mediterranean Sea and shorelines.

One week following the Titanic-like cruise ship disaster in the Mediterranean, the death toll reports have risen to 11, with 21 people still unaccounted for. The search for the missing has been paused several times due to the dangers of the ship's instability atop the rock where it sits half submerged. The magnitude of the resort tort lawsuits to follow is yet to be seen.

The Coast Guard transcript of the exchange between the Guard and the ship's captain was released to the press and revealed a contradiction from the captain's original public statement following the accident. The day of the incident, the captain stated that reports of him abandoning ship before the evacuation was complete were untrue. He stated that he and his officers were the last to leave the ship.

Translations of the transcript vary. Among the pieces published by The Washington Post:

(Captain) Schettino insisted he was on a rescue boat coordinating efforts.

"Alright," Schettino said. "I'm going."

Among the pieces published by Reuters:

Captain to Coast Guard: "I am on a life boat of rescue, I am under here. I am not going anywhere. I am here."

Captain to Coast Guard: "I am going on board."

A cruise ship in the Mediterranean carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew struck an underwater rock, ran aground and capsized over the weekend, leaving six people dead, more than a dozen missing, and the ship half sunken into the Sea.

The dramatic cruise ship crash also left thousands stranded, after passengers reportedly leapt off the ship and swam for shore, recalling scenes from the Titanic cruise ship disaster now immortalized on film.

Passengers reported blackouts, crawling through dark hallways, plates and dishes crashing, desperate attempts to reach lifeboats, and general chaos. Some were evacuated by helicopter, others rescued by ferry, and many took shelter on a nearby island in schools, hotels and a church, overrunning the tiny island of 1,500 residents.

A couple from Homestead, Florida and a couple from Aventura, Florida were on board, and survived.

LIABILITY

The resort torts seem to be stacking up, with reports of delays in lowering lifeboats and lack of evacuation instructions, according to MSNBC. Liability is also looming from a reported lack of evacuation drills before the ship sailed, no head counts once in the life boats, and an "'unapproved, unauthorized' deviation in course" by the captain, according to BBC News.

The chairman and chief executive of Costa Cruises, owned by Carnival Corporation, pointed blame at human error by the ship's captain, who veered off course and sailed too close to the island. The captain denied wrongdoing according to the BBC report, saying the rock that the ship struck was not marked on his nautical chart. He also denied claims that he abandoned ship before the evacuation was complete.

CNN reported today that the captain "faces possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning ship while passengers were still on board."

Cruise ships are not merely large boats, they are virtual floating cities. These maritime hotels, however, can lack fundamental safety policies, protocols, and procedures to protect passengers from harm. They generally fly foreign flags, so they do not have to comply with United States laws. Additionally, antiquated laws and contractual language limiting passenger rights and remedies can put travelers in a precarious position and require aggressive litigation.

As the Act requires, Royal Caribbean recently reported an alleged rape aboard one of its ships to the FBI and BSO, and allowed both to investigate the ship and port. The ship's 'guest care team' also offered the alleged victim assistance including medical care and counseling, according to a statement from the cruise line's manager of Global Corporate Communications, as reported in the Sun Sentinel.

The Sentinel article says that a 15-year-old girl from Iowa said she was lured from a teen dance club on board to a private room, where a 15-year-old boy said there would be a party. Instead, she said, there was only another man there, and the two of them raped her.

Both males live in Brazil, are being held in Broward, and appeared in court last Wednesday. The elder, a 20-year-old, was accused of one count of committing a lewd and lascivious act, ordered not leave the tri-county area and denied access to his or a replacement passport. The younger was charged with lewd and lascivious battery and held at the Broward Juvenile Assessment Center.

The International Cruise Victims Association (ICV) represents victims of crime on cruise ships, their families and friends, and individuals concerned about the problems of victimization and disappearances on cruise ships. The organization advocates for legislative reform to protect passengers from crimes and increase the rights of victims of crimes that do occur on cruise ships, and provides support to victims of crimes occurring on cruise ships.

The National Association for Victims of Crimes and the Rape, Assault, and Incest National Network (RAINN) have joined ICV in the effort to promote reform to the Cruise Line Industry.

The National Crime Victim Bar Association is a network of attorneys and allied professionals dedicated to facilitating civil actions brought by crime victims. Crime victims may be able to file civil lawsuits against perpetrators and responsible third parties for the damages the victims suffered as a result of the crime. Personal injury attorney John Elliott Leighton serves on the Advisory Board of the National Crime Victim Bar Association.

Naples Bay Resort evacuated 24 hotel guests and 20 employees from its premises after an explosion occurred around 9am Thursday.

The Naples Daily News reported that an electrical worker installing meters at the Resort suffered first-, second- and possibly third-degree burns to his upper body from an electrical flash fire. The cause of the explosion is unknown and is being investigated.

The Naples Fire Chief stated that the electrician's life was saved only because he was wearing a face shield, eye protection and a fire-resistant shirt. The fireball was reportedly hot enough to vaporize nearby metal. A hotel corridor sustained smoke damage. The electrician was a subcontractor for FPL. Damages were estimated at $20,000.

Until the investigation is complete, negligence and/or liability for the explosion and its cause could only be speculative.

Related Resort Tort case law:

• In fulfilling its duty to maintain its premises in a reasonably safe condition, "a landowner must conduct inspections appropriate for the premises involved."
Yuniter v. A & A Edgewater of Florida, Inc., 707 So.2d 763 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998)

"Even among gambling friendly senators" there is mounting opposition to the massive destination resort casino plans proposed for South Florida, despite projections of an economic windfall.

A majority of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee has asked for significant changes to the current bill proposed for casino expansion legislation in the state. The Committee is known as being open to casino expansion, according to the Miami Herald, but is not yet willing to pass the current proposal.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce is lobbying against the bill on behalf of Disney and the Central Florida theme park and tourism industry.

The facilities in question are three $2 billion resort casinos in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties that could bring a reported $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion in annual gaming. The figure is based on 6.6 million to 14 million annual visitors to the resorts. The entire state of Florida currently sees around 82 million visitors annually.

The increase in visitors and resort activities would likely to give rise to a substantial increase in Resort Torts. If built, the initial proposed hotel alone is expected to have 5,200 rooms, making it the largest in the country.

The Senate sponsor of the casino resort bill, Ellyn Bogdanoff, estimates that 31% of the new gaming would compromise existing casinos, primarily the Seminole Hard Rock casinos. Casino cases in Florida currently hinge on the sovereign immunity of the Native American community that runs the facilities under their land grants. They cannot be sued and a plaintiff must go to tribal court. It is important to note, however, that not all areas of a casino location are necessarily tribe owned. Some of the shops and restaurants are "concessions" that are independently owned outside the tribe and can be sued outside tribal court. Common areas around a tribal casino are still considered tribal owned.

Florida already has a built-in base of resort tort victims because of the vast tourism industry throughout the state. Tourists are here to have a good time and relax, which can also mean letting their guard down in unfamiliar surroundings where alcohol and late nights prevail. Resort Torts can involve a wide range of cases, including hotel and motel safety; cruise ship litigation; pleasure boating and jet ski incidents; amusement, aquatic, diving and swimming incidents; foreign travel and medical emergencies; gaming and casinos; commercial and general aviation; rental car liability; moped, bicycle and motorcycle safety; buses and tour guides; travel industry liability for crime victims; medical care provided to vacationers, and many more.

A man's fatal heart attack was allegedly induced by bad chicken served on an American Airlines flight. The airline is now being sued by his wife.

In a flight from Barcelona to New York, the couple ate a meal onboard American Airlines. The man had the chicken and "became pale, experienced 'sharp stomach cramps' and was suddenly very thirsty" according to a report of the incident in The Miami New Times.

Despite his condition, the couple boarded their connecting flight to Miami, where he experienced nauseousness, shortness of breath and finally a heart attack. An emergency landing in Norfolk, Virginia was too late to save the man's life.

Lawsuits were filed against American Airlines and Sky Chefs with a claim that the chicken was poisoned with the bacteria C. perfringens. The suit also alleged the airline's negligence in allowing the man to board the Miami flight, failing to provide medical attention, and delaying the emergency landing.

LSG Sky Chefs claims not to have catered that flight and said it would file a motion to remove its name from the case defendants.

Resort Torts are cases of civil liability for negligent or criminal acts that arise out of a resort, vacation or recreational setting. These can involve aspects of hotel and motel safety, cruise ship litigation, pleasure boating and jet ski incidents, amusement, aquatic, diving and swimming incidents, foreign travel and medical emergencies, gaming and casinos, aviation (commercial and general), rental car liability, moped, bicycle and motorcycle safety, buses and tour guides, travel industry liability for crime victims, and medical care provided to vacationers.

In a 14-page report, the National Transportation Safety Board cited employee errors as the primary causes of the accident, but added that "Walt Disney World Resort's lack of standard operating procedures leading to an unsafe practice when reversing trains" was also a factor in the accident.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration had previously cited Disney with four safety violations in December 2009 upon concluding its investigation of the accident, and fined the resort $35,200.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that "an employee in the monorail's maintenance shop, which controls the system's track switches, failed to properly position the switch beam. It also found that the manager who was temporarily serving as the monorail system's coordinator -- relaying commands between the maintenance shop and the train drivers -- was not in the system's control tower during the track-switch procedure, where he could have seen that the track had not been properly aligned."

Disney's policies, however, did not require the central coordinator to be station in the control tower when directing monorail movements, nor that the employee in the monorail shop verify the beam realignment. Employees were also not required to follow an operating guide with regards to moving from the front cab of the train to the back cab before driving in reverse.

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Resort Torts are cases of civil liability for negligent or criminal acts in a resort, vacation or recreational setting. They can encompass a variety of legal cases, revealing that tourists, business travelers and locals alike are all exposed to risk while traveling, vacation, or engaging in resort or pleasure activities... including NIGHTCLUBS.

The Sun Sentinel reported this week that a nightclub in Broward County, advertised from Fort Pierce to Miami, is a regular stop for Sheriff's deputies and city paramedics, for illegal drugs being sold and used, and for teenagers who have passed out, overdosed, or having seizures.

Pompano Beach Mayor Lamar Fisher said he receives weekly calls about the facility, from parents complaining about it. He wants the club's electronic dance music shows at Club Cinema - which pull in more than 2,000 people - shut down.

The Sun Sentinel article quoted the owner of the production company responsible for many of the shows at Club Cinema as saying that "Anything to do with electronic music, there's going to be drugs."

From April to September this year, 20 people at Club Cinema were treated by city fire-rescue crews - 11 of them under age 18 and 6 of them 18-20-year-olds.

Mayor Fisher said during a commission meeting this week: "One of these times we're going to lose a life and it's uncalled for."

Resort Torts can include a wide variety of legal cases but they all have one thing in common: Tourists, business travelers and locals alike are all exposed to risk while traveling, vacationing or engaging in resort and leisure activities.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, new filings with the state include the following injuries reported at Orlando theme parks:

Islands of Adventure
• A man from Puerto Rico had to have an eye removed after something stuck and lacerated it while he was riding the Dragon Challenge roller coaster in Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure. According to the Sentinel, the description in the report Universal provided the state was "eye discomfort".

Walt Disney World
• An 18-year-old woman lost consciousness and experienced seizure-like symptoms in Castaway Creek.
• A woman injured an ankle on Mayday Falls.
• A woman lost consciousness after riding Mission: Space.
• A 16-year-old girl had a seizure on Star Tours.
• A woman fell and broke her leg at Haunted Mansion.
• Another woman fell and broke her leg on Prince Charming's Regal Carousel.

Wet 'n' Wild, owned by NBCUniversal
• An 8-year-old boy suffered a head injury on Storm.

Amusement Park Injury Reporting
In 2001, The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), the amusement park industry trade group, began producing its own injuries-per-ride-cycle figure for amusement rides (roller coasters, Ferris wheels, etc.) operated at fixed site locations. Their methodology is that IAAPA asks its members each year to report the number of riders they've processed through the turnstiles of their mechanical amusement rides, and the number of customers they know of who were treated by a doctor for injuries caused by any of those rides. They then come up with a number of patron rides taken each year, and an aggregated count of ride-related injuries parks reported knowing about.

This reporting system does not collect any information useful for analysis of accident patterns or development of prevention strategies. No information is collected that would identify the ride, the park, the age/size of patrons involved, the type of accident, or the injuries sustained.

With 82 million visitors each year, Florida and its many tourist attractions give rise to Resort Torts - cases of civil liability for negligent or criminal in a resort, vacation or recreational setting. Click here to contact a board certified civil trial specialist with 26 years of experience representing victims of negligence in personal injury matters.

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About Resort Torts

A Resort Tort is an instance of civil liability for negligent or intentional acts that arise out of a resort, vacation or recreational setting. Florida is one of the top destinations for tourists around the world, and these occurrences can happen anywhere in the state and vary in severity. The common focus is that they involve leisure recreational activities and travel.

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Miami Beach's popular Clevelander Hotel has allegedly been providing on-duty police officers with alcohol in concealed containers.

One such officer on the midnight ATV patrol struck and critically injured the mother of a 1-year-old, causing severe brain injuries. From her bed at Jackson Memorial Hospital, she is suing the officer and the hotel, and reportedly will also sue the City of Miami Beach, according to the Miami Herald.

The lawsuit alleges that the officer frequented the Clevelander and that its employees knew he drank excessively. The offer's blood alcohol level measure .088 five hours after the incident. The legal limit is .08.

The officer also struck a man who suffered a leg injury requiring surgery.

Resort Torts are cases of civil liability for negligent or criminal acts that arise out of a resort, vacation or recreational setting. These can involve aspects of hotel and motel safety, cruise ship litigation, pleasure boating and jet ski incidents, amusement, aquatic, diving and swimming incidents, foreign travel and medical emergencies, gaming and casinos, aviation (commercial and general), rental car liability, moped, bicycle and motorcycle safety, buses and tour guides, travel industry liability for crime victims, and medical care provided to vacationers.

Resort Torts can encompass a vast array of types of cases but they all have one thing in common: tourists, business travelers and locals alike are all exposed to risk while traveling, vacationing or engaging in resort or pleasure activities.