A court case pending in Miami contains an insight into the number of sexual assaults which occur during cruises.
The case is Jane Doe v. NCL and involves an incident where a cruise passenger alleges that she was raped in the toilet stall of a public bathroom while participating in a "Pub Crawl" on the Norwegian Sun. A "Pub Crawl" is what I would describe as a drinking game where NCL employees take passengers to bars throughout the cruise ship where they are served booze. I mentioned the case last year.
The federal district court judge just entered a number of orders in the case which are of interest.
NCL filed a motion arguing that it owed no obligation to warn its guests of the risk of being raped on the high seas. The court rejected the cruise line’s argument.
The court pointed to the fact that there were 23 allegations of sexual assault on NCL cruise ships for the 15 month period before the incident (January 2010 to April 2011). The history of prior sexual crimes on NCL’s fleet of cruise ships raised the issue whether the rape on the Norwegian Sun was foreseeable which, the court held, is an issue for the jury at trial.
NCL also argued that it had no duty not to over-serve passengers alcohol during cruises. The federal court also rejected this argument. The court adopted the holding of a state court case, Hall v. Royal Caribbean, where a state appellate court ruled that cruise lines face liability when they serve passengers alcohol beyond the point of intoxication.
The security report on this case concluded that the passenger was "extremely intoxicated."
Last week, I mentioned that NCL just adopted a "all you can drink" alcohol policy for $49 a day. In our experiences there is a direct correlation between too much cruise booze and sexual assaults.
The passenger in the NCL case is being represented by Miami maritime lawyer Keith Brais who posted copies of the court orders on line here and here.
NCL is being defended by Miami lawyer Curtis Mase. Mr. Mase was involved in a highly publicized case in 1999 where a trial court ordered Carnival to reveal the number of sexual assaults against cruise ship passengers. This was the first time a cruise line had to reveal the extent of shipboard crimes.
Carnival disclosed that there were 62 incidents on its cruise ships for a five year period. Two weeks later, the New York Times reported that Carnival located another 46 incidents and raised the tally to 108 incidents of sexual misconduct over the preceding 5 years.