An explosion and fire aboard NCL's Norway on Memorial Day Weekend injured a dozen crew
members and killed five other seaman. The explosion occurred in the boiler-room of the old
cruise ship after arriving at the Port of Miami at the end of a Caribbean cruise.
Insiders in the cruise industry are aware of the spotty safety records of the Norway,
built in 1960, and still sailing notwithstanding significant "deferred
maintenance." Two years ago on Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. Coast Guard shut down
the forty-three year old cruise ship after it failed Coast Guard inspections.
Hundreds of defective welds and and improper temporary sleeves were discovered throughout
the vessel's sprinkler system. A client of the firm, Andrej Gryczan, an engine repairman
from Gdansk, Poland, was seriously injured after working 20 hours a day for a week to
repair the leaking sprinkler pipes. Mr. Gryczan obtained a $700,000 verdict from a Miami-Dade County jury last October.
The firm is investigating this latest catastrophe. Read the article in the Miami Herald.
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises Sued for
Violation of Florida's Consumer Protection Act
Royal
Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. and its subsidiary brand, Celebrity Cruises, Inc., were sued for
fraud on Friday, May 16, 2003 in a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade County Florida. The lawsuit
seeks to prevent the cruise lines from continuing the fraud, and seeks class action status
for the million of passengers defrauded to date.
Faced with decreased tickets sales in a competitive business dominated by cross-town
rival Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity schemed to increase their
profitability by charging excessive or illegal taxes to passengers, according to the
lawsuit. The cruise lines continue to charge the fraudulent taxes to
date.
The scheme is based on a legitimate IRS tax which requires the cruise lines to charge
$3 to passengers who embark or disembark at ports in the United States. Starting in
April or May 2001, Royal Caribbean began to overcharge the passengers an additional $15 to
$25 in "taxes." Rather than paying these amounts to the IRS, the companies kept
the money. The cruise lines also charged passengers taxes on foreign cruises where
no such tax was due.
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity was accused in the late 1990's of engaging in a similar
scheme by overcharging passengers port charges. After an investigation by the Florida
Attorney General, the cruise lines were barred from charging any fees in addition to the
advertised ticket price except those fees actually passed on by the companies to the U.S.
government.
Royal Caribbean registered it business in Liberia and flags its vessels in foreign
countries in order to avoid paying most U.S. taxes. Yet, the lawsuit alleges that
for the past two years Royal Caribbean charged its own brand of illegal taxes -
approximating $90,000,000. An estimated 5.7 million passengers (mostly U.S. citizens) were
affected by the charges. Including future bookings, the cruise line over-charged its
customers approximately $150,000,000.
Counsel for the plaintiffs are James Walker, and the law firm of Tew, Cardenas, Rebak, Kellogg, Lehman, DeMario, Tague,
Raymond, & Levine. Lead counsel for the passengers is Tom Tew.
Read the article in the Miami Herald.
February 2003:
Carnival Employee Sexually Assaults Passenger on
Carnival's Legend Cruise Ship
A Carnival Cruise Line crew member was arrested by the Broward County
Sheriff's Department on charges that he raped a passenger aboard the Legend as it
returned to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said the 28-year-old female
victim was asleep around 5 a.m. when the crewman, Made Wirawan, 24, used a master key to
enter her cabin. Once inside, the crewman raped the woman as the cruise ship returned to
port in Fort Lauderdale. The Legend was returning from an eight-day Caribbean
cruise.
The victim reported the incident to Carnival’s onboard security personnel. After
identifying Wirawan, a native of Indonesia, security guards detained him until the ship
was docked and the sheriff's department responded, Coleman-Wright said.
The woman, who lives out-of-state, was transported to the Sexual Assault Treatment Center
in Fort Lauderdale for tests. She then returned to her home state to recover from
the assault.
The Carnival crewman was arrested and and jailed in Fort Lauderdale on charges of sexual
battery and burglary with assault or battery.
Jennifer de la Cruz, a spokeswoman for the Miami-based cruise line, confirmed the crewman
was a shipboard employee of Carnival. She would offer no other comment about the sexual
assault.
