Maritime Injury Attorney Blog

In a decision hot off the press, Erikson v. NCL (Bahamas) Ltd., Case Number 1:11-Civ-20414-COOKE/TURNOFF (S.B. Fla. April 27, 2011), Federal District Judge Cooke of the Southern District of Florida ruled that an arbitration provision in a seamen's employment agreement with Norwegian Cruise Lines was null and void as against public policy.

The seaman originally filed an action in State Court. Norwegian Cruise Lines removed the case to Federal Court and sought to compel arbitration based on the arbitration clause and the employment agreement. Norwegian Cruise Lines argued that the arbitration clause was enforceable pursuant to the United Nations Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards (New York 1958) ("The Convention").

The arbitration provided the substantive law would be the law of the flag state of the vessel, which in the case of Norwegian Cruise Lines is the Bahamas.

I recently published a blog on our injury board blog, concerning arbitration provisions in seamen employment contracts. In this particular case, Norwegian Cruise Lines attempted to require application of foreign law to the seaman's claims, depriving him of his United States statutory rights under the Jones Act. In Thomas v. Carnival Corp., 573 F.3d 1113 (11th Cir. 2009), the Court held that an arbitration clause was null and void as a matter of public policy when it deprived the Plaintiff of his United States statutory rights. In Thomas, the statutory right involved was the penalty wage statute available to a seaman. The arbitration provision was determined to be null and void in Thomas because Carnival attempted to deprive the seaman of his U.S. statutory rights under the penalty wage statute.

In the Norwegian Cruise Lines case under discussion, the Federal Judge ruled that the same reasoning applied with respect to the seaman's Jones Act claim. Since the agreement called for the applicability of Bahamian Law, the agreement improperly took away Plaintiff's United States statutory remedies. Accordingly, the clause was determined void as a matter of public policy.

Continue reading "Southern District Federal Judge Declares Arbitration Provision Null and Void in Seamen's Employment Agreement " »

The Coast Guard released a report on Friday which determined Transocean was at fault in the Gulf oil spill disaster. The report found:" Flaws in Transocean Ltd's emergency training and equipment and a poor safety culture contributed to the deadly Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion that led to the Gulf oil spill."

A spokesperson from Transocean, Brian Kennedy, issued a statement that his company "strongly" disagrees with the Coast Guard's findings.

There are several more entities that are concluding their investigation and reports.
As for the legislation that has been proposed to address caps on liability for the oil spill disaster, including the harsh restrictions on the wrongful death claims brought by the survivors of those who were needlessly killed in this disaster, no legislation has been enacted so far.

USA Today reported today a fire in a generator knocked out power to a cruise ship sailing off the Mexican coast over the weekend, forcing the evacuation of nearly 750 passengers and crew. The Associated Press reports 522 passengers and 226 crew members aboard the Ocean Star Pacific on Saturday were evacuated by catamaran to the Port of Huatulco on Mexico's West Coast.

Fire aboard a ship is a major safety concern, although they do not happen with regularity, and almost all the reported fires have been limited to specific areas aboard the ship and confined and adequately put out without injuries or deaths. However, there have been instances where there have been serious injuries and deaths due to fire aboard a ship. We previously represented over 250 families who lost loved ones who were aboard a cruise ship named the Scandinavian Star. The cruise ship had been operating in Florida for many years under the popular seaescape name, which were one day cruises to nowhere. Although the ship was subject to inspections and certification by a classification society called Lloyds the ship was found to have serious safety deficiencies, including the lack of proper fire alarms, lighting for when electricity goes off, as well as communication among crew for proper response and rescue efforts.

In another passenger case aboard a Princess cruise vessel, the Star Princess, a fire onboard spread on the balconies of the ship, causing serious injuries to the some of the passengers. The investigation afterward found that the materials on the ship were inappropriate and caused the fire to rapidly spread.

There can be some sense of security to those who travel onboard a ship that there are stringent international regulations, including the Safety of Life at Sea Convention, which addresses fire prevention, detection and response procedures. These regulations have been updated based on the findings of the investigations of the previous fires.

This recent fire reminds us that fire is one of those risks associated with cruising, and it is scary to think about being on a ship in the high seas and a fire develops. The crew does receive stringent fire related training as obviously this is one risk no one wants to see materialize.

The immediate detection and response to any fire is the key, and smoke detectors, alarms, and training of the crew are the key.

Claims for emotional damages may also be available in addition to those for personal injuries from a fire related incident.

In a troubling economic market, the cruise ship companies continue to expand. In fact Carnival UK CEO David Dingle, speaking at the launch of the Cruise Report 2011, says the cruise ship market has plenty of room for growth and has not reached a point of saturation.

Florida today reported that Disney is expanding, sailing from new ports. The Disney Fantasy ship will soon start sailing from Port Canaveral and will have a capacity of 4000 passengers. Wow! Can you imagine a floating Disney Land with 4000 passengers? Pretty amazing. Of course the success of the cruises rely on the crew, which will be another couple of thousand.

We hope Disney will treat the crew, mostly hired from third world countries, well. Even though the crew are the backbone of the company, when a crewmember breaks their back or suffers another injury, they often face a long and hard fight to get the proper medical care and treatment, as well as fair and just compensation for their injuries.

The attorney's at RPM have been handling maritime personal injury and wrongful death cases since 1983.

Our Maritime firm helps crewmembers, as well as passengers, navigate the tricky waters of Admiralty and Maritime law when pursuing a claim against a cruise ship company for personal injury.