Carnival Gets New Trial in $10.3M Cruise Assault Case
The crew member worked on Carnival Miracle’s cleaning crew, and video recordings covering the storage-closet area were not examined during the FBI investigation.
A federal appeals court has ordered a new trial for Carnival Cruise Line on sexual assault and false imprisonment claims stemming from a 2018 encounter aboard Carnival Miracle. The ruling vacates part of a $10.3 million judgment awarded to a woman identified as Jane Doe following a six-day trial in Miami.
The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the South Florida federal district court should have allowed jurors to consider an FBI report that concluded the encounter between Doe and a crew member was consensual. The appellate judges said the report “could have been the deciding factor for the jury.”
Appeal centered on excluded FBI findings
In its Aug. 25 opinion, the appeals court reversed the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment on the false imprisonment claim. It also vacated the judgment in part on the false imprisonment and sexual assault claims, returning both matters to the lower court.
Appeals Court Judge Barbara Lagoa wrote that Doe had not shown that the conclusions in the FBI reports were unreliable. Lagoa also noted that Doe conceded in her legal briefs that the FBI investigation was timely.
Carnival had argued that excluding the FBI’s conclusion prevented the jury from considering evidence supporting the crew member’s account. The employee, who worked on the ship’s cleaning crew, told FBI agents that the encounter was consensual.
The district court trial concluded in July. The appellate decision does not set a timetable for retrying the claims.
Disputed encounter aboard Carnival Miracle
Doe was extremely intoxicated when the encounter occurred in a storage closet aboard Carnival Miracle. She told authorities that she did not fully remember what happened or whether the crew member prevented her from leaving the closet.
She later told friends and a ship security officer that she believed she had been sexually assaulted. Video recordings covering the closet area were not examined, leaving the FBI investigation to assess differing accounts from Doe and the crew member.
Carnival Corp. is partly self-insured for liability claims and also carries other insurance, including mutual coverage through protection and indemnity clubs.
