A jury within the case of Jane Doe v. Carnival Company d/b/a Carnival Cruise Line case quantity 19-24766, pending in federal court docket for the Southern District of Florida, returned a verdict within the quantity of $10,200,000 on July 18, 2022 for a passenger who was raped by a crew member on the Carnival Miracle.
Info Alleged By Jane Doe
The salient information are contained partially in a call by a federal Justice of the Peace who dominated on numerous pre-trial motions filed by the events and reported in Doe v. Carnival Company 2021 WL 7540787. Within the pertinent components, the choice states:
“Jane Doe was a passenger onboard Carnival’s vessel, Miracle, and within the early hours of December 2, 2018, she alleges that Fredy Anggara, a Carnival crewmember, raped her in a storage closet.”
The complaint (lawsuit) which Jane Doe’s lawyer filed additional alleges further particulars, which embody:
The incident occurred on “December 1, 2018;”
This was the “first cruise” for Jane Doe, a resident of the state of Washington;
“On the final evening of the topic cruise, Jane Doe went up a stairwell. On the prime was a CARNIVAL worker (see picture produced in discovery);
As soon as Jane Doe reached the highest of the steps, the topic worker lured Jane Doe right into a (upkeep) closet. He went contained in the closet together with her, locked the door, raped her, and ejaculated on her;
Thereafter he unlocked the closet door and let Jane Doe depart;
Jane Doe instantly rushed away in the direction of her room. The assailant caught as much as her and requested her to permit him again in her room. Jane Doe declined his request;
As soon as Jane Doe reached her room, she burst into tears and advised her good friend what had simply occurred;
Jane Doe and her good friend went to search out assist and report what had occurred;
Jane Doe began hyperventilating and having panic assaults;
Jane Doe positioned workers of Defendant to report the crime;
The cruise’s workers members positioned Jane Doe in a wheelchair and took her to the ship’s medical facility the place workers utilized a rape package on her and gave her medicines to eat to be able to combat sexually transmitted illnesses she might have obtained throughout the rape;
Jane Doe was subjected to quite a few episodes of humiliation following the medical examination the place she needed to stroll by dozens of passengers who had been ready to disembark the ship. They had been ogling her as she handed by them in only a t-shirt as she was not supplied any contemporary garments to put on; and
Following the cruise, Jane Doe adopted up with CARNIVAL to see if the topic worker had been fired, if any disciplinary motion was taken, and/or if he was arrested. CARNIVAL didn’t reply.”
Carnival’s Protection
Throughout discovery, Carnival responded to the rape by claiming by its company consultant Suzie Vasquez (a lawyer) that on Carnival cruise ships allegedly “sexual assaults are literally very, very uncommon . . .”
Cruise Professional – Dr. Ross Klein
Previous to trial, Carnival tried to ban notable cruise knowledgeable Dr. Ross Klein, who’s the creator of the favored CruiseJunkie web page, to testify relating to the frequency of rapes aboard Carnival cruise ships. Dr. Klein has beforehand testified as an knowledgeable earlier than each homes of Congress relating to the problems of crime on cruise ships. His opinions are attached. Jane Doe’s counsel sought to elicit testimony from Dr. Klein that Carnival had discover that Mr. Anggara, the Carnival assailant, was more likely to assault passengers. Carnival tried to dam Dr. Klein’s testimony that:
- The cruise {industry} as an entire, and Carnival Cruise Line specifically, has an consciousness of the issue of rapes, sexual assaults, and sex-related incidents on cruise ships, together with the incidence of rape, sexual assaults, and sex-related incidents on Carnival cruise ships.
- Carnival Cruise Line failed in utilizing out there knowledge to conduct a social epidemiological evaluation of crimes on its ships with the aim of focused and particular methods for stopping rape, sexual assaults, and sex-related incidents.
- Company are given an elevated sense of security by promotional materials for Carnival Cruise Traces cruises, and by publication of crime statistics for rape and sexual assault on its web site.
- The sexual assault of Jane Doe was to a level foreseeable given the cruise line’s data about previous sex-related incidents, about use of alcohol onboard Carnival ships, and its failure to implement cheap initiatives to handle the issue of rape, sexual assault, and sex-related incidents onboard Carnival ships.
In an order denying Carnival’s motion in its entirety, the federal Justice of the Peace dominated that Dr. Klein is certified, his methodology is dependable, and his testimony is useful to the jury.
Counsel for Jane Doe filed a motion seeking sanctions towards Carnival for what he alleged was the intentional misconduct of the protection counsel for Carnival and the cruise line’s company consultant throughout the trial (see exhibit 303).
Rape Instances In opposition to Carnival Cruise Line
Within the 12 months earlier than COVID-19 crippled the cruise {industry}, there have been over 100 sexual assaults on cruise ships, in line with DOT cruise crime statistics which breaks down as follows:
- Carnival Cruise Line: 43 sexual assault victims (37 passengers).
- Royal Caribbean: 31 sexual victims (20 passengers).
I attended a listening to in 2007 earlier than Congress relating to cruise ship crime the place a senior FBI official testified that solely 7% of sexual assaults on cruise ships are prosecuted in federal court docket.
This poor prosecution price is due to the historic reluctance of the FBI to develop into concerned in intercourse crimes at sea, the tendency of the cruse {industry} to brush the crimes underneath the rug, and the inadvertent or intentional destruction of proof on cruise ships.
Carnival Cruise Line Leads Cruise Industry with the Most Sexual Assaults
The U.S. Congress has studied the issues of rape aboard cruise ships. The cruise {industry}’s commerce group, CLIA, argued that per capita cruise ship crime charges must be based mostly on the full variety of individuals cruising in any 12 months (round 30,000,000 cruised this 12 months) quite than the common variety of individuals populating cruise ships on any given day. By analogy, the per capita crime statistics for U.S. cities are calculated based mostly on the variety of residents in a metropolis. Vacationers who go to the town throughout the 12 months are clearly not counted as residents. Think about how the crime statistics for New York Metropolis could be diluted if as a substitute of calculating crime charges based mostly on the variety of residents within the metropolis (roughly 8 million), this quantity was inflated to incorporate every of the greater than 60 million individuals who go to the town yearly.
Congress rejected CLIA’s argument and concluded that per capita cruise crime statistics must be calculated based mostly on the common variety of passengers crusing at a specific time, not on the annual variety of passengers.
Utilizing Congress’ methodology to find out sexual assault price ends in a per capita price for Carnival 
Cruise Line of almost 40 (39.6) per 100,000. This quantity is calculated by taking the variety of sexual assaults on Carnival ships reported to the FBI within the final 12 months of 2019 (43), and dividing it by the full variety of individuals on Carnival’s fleet of ships (round 75,000 passengers and roughly 33,500 crew members for a complete of 108,500).
The per capita price of sexual assaults on Carnival ships of 40 per 100,000 is important. (Please notice, that is my opinion based mostly on the information which I’ve reviewed; it’s not essentially the opinion of Dr. Klein). It’s a greater per capita price than California, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Georgia (and over a dozen different states). The speed on Carnival ships is greater than the common per capita rape price in the USA of round 27 of 100,000.
Jane Doe’s Counsel – Daniel Courtney
Jane Doe is represented by Miami lawyer Daniel Cortney. This can be a important verdict which demonstrates the seriousness of the case and the sufferer’s accidents. Congratulations to Mr. Courtney and his workers for his or her wonderful work on this case.
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July 23, 2022 Replace: The Washington Put up lined the trial and printed an article titled Carnival Cruise Line owes rape victim $10 million, jury says. The newspaper writes:
“The lawsuit claims Carnival was responsible for the rape as a result of it failed to watch darkish, public areas of the ship the place girls might be weak to assaults. It says the corporate ought to have exercised a stage of cheap take care of friends as a result of “on board its cruise ships there have been quite a few assaults, batteries, sexual assaults and batteries, rapes, and assaults perpetrated by crew on passengers.”
In court docket paperwork responding to questions from Carnival Corp.’s illustration, the plaintiff described how the alleged assault modified her life.
“I’ve depressive episodes,” she says within the paperwork. “I endure from anxiousness particularly in public. It has affected how intimate I’m with an individual.”
“At my lowest level I considered killing myself,” she says within the paperwork. “I had a plan. I went round to go to my associates and created recollections for them to recollect me. I additionally wrote everybody notes. I used to be hospitalized.”
In statistics stored by the Department of Transportation displaying allegations of felony exercise on ships that embark and disembark passengers in the USA, sexual assault is the highest offense. There have been 82 allegations in 2018 and 101 in 2019. The pandemic pressured an industry-wide halt to cruise sailings in March 2020, and the division has not up to date the experiences since cruise ships began crusing once more.”
Carnival PR division was quoted within the article as saying that the rape was allegedly a “consensual sexual encounter” which was “in step with an investigation by the FBI that concluded the encounter was consensual.” The irony is that the FBI, which admitted in testimony earlier than Congress that rapes alleged to have occurred on cruise ships be criminally prosecuted lower than 10% of the time, by no means prepares experiences claiming that rape was consensual as Carnival falsely implied. Furthermore, the trial court docket dominated earlier than trial that the FBI report constituted inadmissible rumour.
The trial court docket dominated as a result of that the FBI report constitutes inadmissible rumour (see docket no. 233), any determinations and statements made in these experiences – together with the FBI’s conclusions relating to the rape at challenge on this case – “is not going to be introduced to the jury or admitted into proof at trial.” As such, Carnival by its workers and legal professionals couldn’t point out any conclusions reached by the FBI on the premise that the file constituted rumour.
Counsel for Jane Doe filed a movement searching for sanctions towards Carnival throughout trial for what he alleged was the intentional misconduct of the protection counsel for Carnival and the cruise line’s company consultant throughout the trial by implying that the FBI, which hardly ever arrest rapists on cruise ships, declined to suggest prosecution based mostly on an alleged conclusion that the conduct was consensual. (see docket no. 303).
It’s outrageous for Carnival to now challenge an announcement which the trial court docket prohibited.
After working towards regulation for 39 years. I’ve by no means seen a company defendant like Carnival Company challenge a public assertion which expressly violates a pre-trial ruling by a trial court docket like this.
Picture credit score: Carnival Miracle – Master0Garfield – CC BY-SA 4.0 commons / wikimedia (prime); CRUISEMAPPER (backside).
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