A woman who sued Carnival Corp. for serving her too much alcohol was awarded $300,000 by a jury in Miami last week, after the company was found liable for injuries she sustained while overly intoxicated.
The Miami Heraldreportedthat a six-person federal jury found the company liable after learning the plaintiff was served at least 14 shots of tequila over an eight-and-a-half-hour period, making Carnival Corp. responsible for the injuries she suffered while onboard the ship.
The award exceeded the original $250,000 request that was made during the trial, according to the woman’s attorney, Spencer Aronfeld, who spoke with the news outlet.
He said cases like these rarely go to trial and that it’s even more unlikely for a big company to be found liable.
“It’s hard to get to trial, period,” Aronfeld explained. “I’ve had many overservice cases that have settled, but none that went the full distance.”
A representative for the cruise company said Tuesday that “Carnival Corporation respectfully disagrees with the verdict and believes there are grounds for a new trial and appeal, which it will pursue.”
The jury said crew members had a duty to exercise caution in the interest of passenger safety and should have cut her off.
This included “the responsibility… to supervise and/or assist passengers aboard the vessel who Carnival knew, or should have known, were engaging, or were likely to engage in behavior potentially dangerous to themselves or others aboard the vessel,” according to court documents.
When asked to outline the percentage of blame between the cruise company and the plaintiff, the jury wrote that 60 percent lies with Carnival Cruise and 40 percent lies with the woman, Diana Sanders.
Sanders, 45, works as a nurse and was reportedly a passenger on the Carnival Radiance ship back on Jan. 5, 2024.
Source: VidNews » Feed
