Passengers injured on tour in St Thomas

[Cruise Fanatic]

Read about it here.

[Cruise Fanatic]

Read about it here.

[penny3333]

I can see the lawyers gathering now. What a bummer, get a broken ankle on your cruise. Thankfully, most of the injuries were minor.

[Casanova frankenstein]

Well I can tell you this,
RCCL will not do anything for them if there are no lawyers on the case.
I know is not their foult but it was a Cruise company tour so they are responsable in some way.
My guess that $20 dollars ticket discount on the ships bars is not going to pay for the inconvenience they had...after all they ruin their cruise

[Dwayne]

I agree. They have a responsibility to do more than the cost of the excursion IMHO. Now, how much they'll do is another thing.

Dwayne

[billybuzzy]

At least the accident occurred in a U.S. Territory and U.S Laws will preside. The injuries were suffered at the hands of a tour operator rather that the cruiseline itself. It is my belief that such cruise operators must file proof of liability insurance in order to provide tours. Even so, RCCL would not be completely absolved from legal liability - as has already been indicated in this post - There will be lawyers involved!

BillyBuzzy

[Dwayne]

I'm not very familiar with RCI's ticket contract. I know CCL's has a clause limiting their liability for shore excursions. I was saying they had a responsibility to do the right thing about some type of credit or something in my opinion. I think all of the tour operators should be required to have proof of liability insurance too.

Dwayne

[billybuzzy]

Dwayne- I believe that virtually all the cruiselines have liability limiting clauses in their contracts - for the most part they tend to scare off the more timid litigants but in reality, in U.S. courts they are set aside in many cases. The Principal is frequently found liable for the acts of the Agent -contracts can be interpreted against the party that draws the contract,especially when the injured party has no choice in the actual drafting of the contract. The cruiselines have a continuing liability - but it usually takes the acts of Attorneys and the Courts to bring about a fair and just resolution! If human injury has occurred the judges and juries are most empathetic to the injured!

This gives the drafter of the contract great motivation to settle out of court with the injured party!

BillyBuzzy

[Dwayne]

Billy - Thanks. I don't have any experience or education with maritime agency law.

Dwayne

[Dave]

These words are familiar to me: "XYZ Company is vicariously liable under the legal theories of agency and respondent superior". This is akin to Ford being liable for something that happened at your local dealership even though Ford was not directly involved. Since they have a franchise contract with the dealership they can be found to have some liability for the actions of the dealership.

A lawsuit will usually contain unnamed defendants "whether real or fictitious" who may be named at a later time. This is just to cover all bases for someone or some entity which is identified during the discovery phase of the lawsuit.