Cruise Ship Passengers Could Be Compensated In A Massive Class Action

16,000 Aussies could be involved


Article heading image for Cruise Ship Passengers Could Be Compensated In A Massive Class Action

Image: Nine News

A major law firm is considering whether to launch a class action that could see up to 16,000 Australians compensated for alleged duty of care failings associated with cruise ship the Sun Princess.

Shine Lawyers is expected to represent passengers who experienced severe vomiting and diarrhoea during eight consecutive cruises across 2016 and 2017, Nine News reports.

Shine travel law department manager Thomas Janson said the class action against Carnival, the parent company of Sun Princess, could be one of the biggest in Australian history.

“(The case) revolves around an alleged failure of a duty of care by Carnival to properly and adequately sanitise the Sun Princess on each cruise and also to give adequate guidelines and safeguards to passenger in preventing them from coming down with norovirus,” he said. 

“Best practice dictates the ship should have been put into dry dock for up to 48 or 72 hours and cleaned thoroughly.

“What we’ve been told is that there were very short turnarounds, usually of around two hours, to clean the ship before the next lot of passengers and new crew boarded … that’s manifestly inadequate to sanitise a ship that’s the size of a skyscraper.”

If the law firm proceeds with the claim, financial compensation to passengers is believed to be the average of a full refund alongside twice the amount for “disappointment and distress”.

6 February 2018




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