At Sea: The Rules Really Are Different Here

Last year, as a maritime lawyer who sues cruise lines, Spencer Aronfeld had so many post-pandemic cases involving fights on cruises that he had to start handing some off to other attorneys.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” says the Coral Gables attorney, with Aronfeld Trial Lawyers. “People lost their minds. It’s a powder keg and they’re drinking, and shit erupts. I’ve had little old ladies getting in fights with kids and just crazy stuff.”

He often argues, in court and on TikTok—which he uses as a “poor man’s focus group,” posting snippets of a client’s story to see where the comments land—that, when a passenger is beaten up or sexually assaulted by another passenger on a cruise ship, it’s the cruise line’s fault for creating the unsafe environment, typically by overserving alcohol and understaffing security.

But these are never easy cases to win.

“What I do is the epitome of the David vs. Goliath battle,” he says. It’s not just that the major cruise lines have armies of lawyers and unlimited resources; it’s because maritime law—which governs navigation and shipping—presents a totally different set of rules. 

“It’s not the most profitable way I could use my law license,” Aronfeld says, “but I love it because of the challenge.”

Maritime lawyer Tonya Meister, with Meister Law in Miami, refers to everything else as “land-based law.” She says there are some key differences between the laws of the land and sea that anyone taking a cruise should know—especially if they get injured.

First and foremost is the statute of limitations. Plaintiffs have six months to send a written notice of claim and just one year to file a lawsuit.

“That catches a lot of people,” she says. “They hire someone who is a land-based personal injury attorney and think they have a few years under the Florida statute, then they don’t file within the one year, and oops, they’ve blown the statute of limitations. They call someone like me after the one year, and there’s nothing I can do. It’s very hard to get around the statute of limitations.”

Similarly, the ticket, which is the contract passengers agree to, has a clause that requires any litigation to be filed in federal court in Miami, where most of the major cruise lines are based.

“Federal court is not, generally speaking, a welcoming environment for injured plaintiffs,” Aronfeld says. “I don’t think federal judges really enjoy hearing these types of claims as much as they enjoy the big, sexy criminal and trademark cases. Some old lady from Wichita slips and falls on the lido deck and breaks her humerus; a lot of them think that’s beneath them. At least they make me feel that way.”

Traveling to Miami can also be a significant burden to plaintiffs. 

“The cases that are required to be brought in Miami may involve a passenger from Nebraska that took a cruise out of California or Alaska,” Meister explains. “People that have never been to Miami can be required to come here for a defense medical exam. Sometimes they hire surveillance to follow people around in their hometown, which is very invasive of their privacy. I get it: There are some people who are frauds and fakers. But if you are a legit hurt person, do you want someone taking video of you and your family while you go to the grocery store or take your kids to school?”

Whether the claim stems from a fight, sexual assault, or an accident, like a slip-and-fall on a wet deck, the injured party must prove the cruise line either knew or should have known about the dangerous condition. In one of Meister’s cases, for instance, a woman was physically attacked  by a man who’d been reported to security the night before. 

“The big picture is: Cruising is generally safe, and it’s a great vacation,” says Meister, who realizes people only call her when something has gone horribly wrong. 

Still, because she’s seen so much, she suggests a few precautions to those wanting to stay safe at sea. In addition to not overconsuming alcohol, she stresses, as a mom herself, that passengers should ask questions before leaving their kids at childcare, especially around protocols like bathroom supervision and other kids who will be grouped with their child. 

“If the child is harmed, they can suffer lifetime consequences from that.”

The same goes for medical situations. Meister, who represented a little girl who fell and got a recommendation to undergo brain surgery in the Caribbean (her parents flew her back to the U.S., where they were told she did not in fact need brain surgery), suggests getting trip insurance and—in a serious medical situation—demanding a medical evacuation home.”

“If you think something is wrong with you or your loved one medically, you want to get off the ship,” Meister says. “It’s not the place to wait things out. Unfortunately, I see a lot of medical situations gone wrong. People have died or had their condition worsen to the point of really significant permanent problems. If things are deteriorating, get off the ship. Keep demanding it until they get you off.”

Meister says she’s not interested in taking on any COVID-19 cases at this time, since anyone going on a cruise now is accepting that risk. Previously, she litigated a case on behalf of the family of a crew member who contracted COVID and died while trapped on a ship in 2020. Meister also says that, because of ship rules that give captains the authority to detain individuals onboard who are a threat to others or themselves, she’s typically not interested in taking on cases with someone alleging they were wrongfully detained. 

“I try to focus most of my practice on serious injuries,” she says. “It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to successfully pursue a case for a cruise passenger, so the damages need to justify the work.”

The Rules

Spencer Aronfeld explains a few laws at sea

• Loss of consortium: “If you and I are married and I’m injured, you can’t make a claim for the loss of support and services and consortium that I’m unable to provide you; whereas if we got rear-ended by a Carnival pickup on I-95, you could.”
• Sexual assault by a crew member: Unlike an assault by a passenger, which the cruise line is liable for only if it “knew or should have known” of the situation, the cruise line is always responsible for a sexual assault by a crew member on a passenger.
• Medical malpractice: A 2014 U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Franza v. Royal Caribbean Cruises said cruise lines cannot escape liability for medical malpractice on ships by claiming the doctors or nurses are independent contractors.
• Death on the High Seas Act: This law was designed to provide lost wages and funeral expenses to widows whose husbands died at sea. Because it does not allow for emotional pain and suffering—which can be claimed following a wrongful death on land—it “really protects the profits of the cruise line at the expense of the passenger.” 
• Notice of Dangerous Condition: Aronfeld had two cases that created case law on the requirement that plaintiffs prove a cruise line knew, or should have known, a hazard existed. In Pizzino v. Norwegian Cruise Lines, the court rejected his argument that if the cruise line itself created a dangerous condition, it should be assumed it was—or should have been—aware of a hazard. The result, according to Aronfeld, was “horrific case law” for injured passengers. Lebron v. Royal Caribbean “helped balance that,” he says, finding that, even if a hazard existed for only 10-15 minutes before an injury, a claim can be made that the cruise line should have known.