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“href =” https://www.law360.com/hospitality/articles/1394530/# “> Joyce Hanson
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Law360 (Jun 16, 2021 at 5:27 pm EDT) – A passenger aboard one Princess cruises Schiff has dropped her proposed class action lawsuit in California federal court against the cruise line and parent company Carnival over a COVID-19 outbreak on a trip that left at least two dead and guests trapped in their staterooms.
Lead plaintiff Kathleen O’Neill, a North Carolina resident who claimed she tested positive for COVID-19 aboard the Coral Princess ship immediately upon returning from her cruise, dismissed her lawsuit against Princess Cruise Lines Ltd on Tuesday . and the parent company Carnival Corp.. in its entirety.
O’Neill’s unilateral prejudice dismissal provided no explanation as to why the lawsuit was dropped. Representatives from O’Neill and the cruise lines did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
However, court records show that on October 2nd Carnival and Princess made a rejection request for failing to make a claim, arguing that the court should dismiss or dismiss class charges based on a class waiver in O’Neill’s transitory contract.
And on October 26, the shipping companies filed a notice in support of their dismissal motion and focused on a judgment dated October 20 in the same district in Archer v. Carnival Corp. & plc, which found that the same transitory contract in O’Neill case prohibits class admission.
The parties in the O’Neill lawsuit moved on November 5 to stay the case, while Archer appealed to the Ninth Ward. The appeals court on February 17 denied the Archer plaintiffs’ motion to allow the appeal.
According to a final joint status report filed on May 17, O’Neill and Carnival said they were close to finalizing their agreement to settle O’Neill’s claims against the cruise lines, followed by voluntary sacking on Tuesday.
O’Neill. from North Carolina Beat Princess and Carnival with their proposed class action lawsuit on July 13 after the coronavirus outbreak left at least two dead and passengers in their cabins for days on their March 2020 cruise.
Their 42-page complaint accused Carnival and Princess of negligence and the passengers who allowed the Coral Princess ship to set sail from Chile on March 5, 2020 after the virus on two sister ships in the early days of the world a pandemic broke out.
O’Neill reported not only of her husband’s nightmarish voyage aboard the Coral Princess, but also of outbreaks on the other two Princess Cruise ships – the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess – that preceded their voyage.
The Diamond Princess experienced one of the first COVID-19 outbreaks on a cruise ship in early February after setting sail from Asia. More than 700 passengers became infected with the virus and 14 died, according to the complaint.
On the Grand Princess, at least one passenger fell ill with symptoms of COVID-19 during a round-trip trip from San Francisco to Mexico on Feb.11, which later led to his death on his next planned trip to Hawaii, without taking any additional precautions and with some passengers from the Mexico voyage still on board, according to O’Neill’s complaint. A reported outbreak caused California to temporarily deny entry to the Grand Princess upon her return and eventually, according to O’Neill’s complaint, more than 130 people on board tested positive and at least five passengers and one crew member died.
In total, Carnival’s ships have recorded more than 1,500 positive infections and at least 39 deaths from COVID-19, according to O’Neill’s complaint.
The Coral Princess was allowed to leave Valparaiso, Chile, on March 5, 2020 despite the recent outbreaks, O’Neill said. She said that she went to the ship’s doctor on March 26 because of shoulder pain without knowing that several passengers were already sick. It wasn’t until March 31 that the captain announced that the passengers should return to their cabins, telling them that an “unusually high number of people” had flu-like symptoms.
The passengers remained locked in their cabins afterwards. Five days later, an announcement said that according to the advertisement, other people had reported in the infirmary and two passengers had died.
O’Neill is represented by Alison E. Chase, Gretchen F. Cappio, and Garrett A. Heilman of Keller Rohrback LLP.
Carnival is represented by Jonathan W. Hughes, Christopher M. Odell, Angel Tang Nakamura, Andrew Johnson and David J. Weiner von Arnold & Porter.
The princess is represented by Jeffrey B. Maltzman of Maltzman & Partner PA.
The case is O’Neill v Carnival Corp. et al., case number 2: 20-cv-06218, by doing US District Court for the Central District of California.
– Editing by Steven Edelstone.
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