Cruise lines are no longer immune to being held liable for negligence of onboard doctors and nurses following a recent ruling by the United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ruling overturned a nearly three-decade-old decision that said cruise lines weren't responsible for medical malpractice or other actions taken by doctors onboard the ship.
The reversal arrives in the wake of Patricia Franza's lawsuit against Royal Caribbean Cruises. According to Hugo Martin of the Los Angeles Times, Franza's father, Pasquale Vaglio, died days after falling and hitting his head on Explorer of the Seas in 2011. Court records indicate that Vaglio received basic treatment from a nurse onboard and had to wait several hours before being evaluated by a doctor on the ship.
The court considered the previous 1988 ruling, known as the "Barbetta Rule," "outdated" considering today's modern technology aboard cruise ships, according to Martin.
BusinessWire.com detailed the judges' thought process: "Citing the realities of modern cruising, the court said these floating cities operating medical facilities onboard for profit from passengers who have no alternative care available have the right to hold the cruise lines vicariously liable for the negligence of their doctors and nurses should they become victims of medical malpractice."
The International Cruise Victims (ICV) praisded the panel's decision, which was issued on Nov. 10. The organization's chairman, Kendall Carver, said the group sees the ruling "as an historic change in the way cruise lines treat people who get sick on cruise ships," per Martin.
Although the ruling doesn't mean that cruise ships are now liable for negligence of doctors and nurses, it does restore the possibility and rejuvenate the opposition, according to lawyer Philip Gerson, per Martin: "It really changes the whole landscape ...The exception has now gone away."
While cruise lines will have to develop a new strategy in order to remain resistant to liability, the court ruling serves as a massive step for cruise victims.
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