Carnival suffers court setback

The class-action suit filed by Costa Concordia passengers will proceed in Florida state court, not Italy, representing a major legal blow Carnival.

The cruise giant has sought to argue Costa Concordia cases at the US federal court level, where it can then ask that the suits be transferred to the Italian legal system. Last year, it successfully deployed this strategy to move a class action filed by Giglio Island residents from a US federal court to the Italian jurisdiction.

Carnival has subsequently attempted to use this legal strategy with the primary class-action suit filed by passengers. That suit is seeking at least $2M/passenger plus $590M in punitive damages. The class action was originally filed in Florida state court. Carnival sought to have it shifted to federal jurisdiction last September.

However, on 15 February US District Court Judge William Dimitrouleas ruled against Carnival and sent the suit back to Florida State Court.

In a statement, plaintiff’s counsel Marc Jay Bern affirmed: ”We are thrilled that we can now turn in our attention to litigating the facts of this case before a Florida state court where the plaintiff s can expect their interest will be protected, rather than in Italy, where the courts are notoriously slow and cases for mass torts such as shipwrecks have taken as long as 30 years without final decisions.