Disclaimer: This article is based on actual news from the real world – honestly! However, it has been sprinkled with a healthy dose of satire.
A Miami federal jury has ordered Carnival Corporation to pay $300,000 to a California woman after the cruise line served her at least 14 shots of tequila in eight and a half hours. Amateur. Diana Sanders, a 45-year-old nurse, suffered a fall sometime between 11:45 p.m. and 12:20 a.m. and sustained a concussion, a possible traumatic brain injury, back injuries, and tailbone injuries. The jury found Carnival 60 percent at fault, and Sanders 40 percent, which is the kind of split you get when both sides clearly did something wrong, but one of them was doing it in a professional sense.
Carnival’s legal defense was a masterclass in institutional amnesia. The company argued Sanders “fails to identify any crew member who over-served her or which bar she consumed alcohol at,” which, on a ship with alcohol serving stations in what the plaintiff’s own complaint called “every nook and cranny,” is less a defense than a confession. Carnival also argued that Sanders “does not sufficiently allege that any crew member knew or should have known that Plaintiff was intoxicated,” citing a lack of evidence that she was “stumbling, sleeping at a bar, slurring her words, or exhibiting any other intoxicated-like behaviors.” After 14 tequila shots. The company’s position, effectively, was that either its bartenders are incapable of counting or its passengers are supernaturally tolerant, and neither option reflects well.
Sanders’ attorney, Spencer Aronfeld, noted this was the first overservice case he’d taken to a full trial, though he’d settled others. The case is a rare example of a cruise line being found liable for passenger behavior, which is less a reflection of how unusual the behavior is than how unusual it is that anyone files lawsuits over it. Carnival’s ‘Cheers!’ drink package officially caps guests at 15 alcoholic beverages per 24-hour period, meaning Sanders was served one shot short of the company’s own stated limit, a limit the company simultaneously markets as a feature.
Sanders is not the industry’s most dramatic cautionary tale. Last year, the fiancée of Michael Virgil, a 35-year-old from Moreno Valley, California, sued Royal Caribbean after the company allegedly served him 33 alcoholic drinks aboard the Navigator of the Seas in under 12 hours. Crew members tackled Virgil, pepper-sprayed him, and injected him with Haloperidol, a psychiatric sedative. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide.
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