Carnival told to compensate cruise passenger who caught Covid in landmark ruling

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Carnival, the world’s biggest cruise company, has been ordered by an Australian judge to cover the medical expenses of a passenger who contracted Covid-19 aboard one of its ships to compensate for its “negligent” handling of the outbreak in a landmark class action ruling.

Justice Angus Stewart concluded that before Carnival’s Ruby Princess cruise liner embarked from Sydney in early March 2020 the company “knew or ought to have known about the heightened risk of coronavirus infection on the vessel, and its potentially lethal consequences . . . yet they proceeded regardless.”

The outbreak aboard the Ruby Princess was linked to 28 deaths and around 700 infections. Carnival was found to have been “negligent and in breach of their duty of care” towards Susan Karpik, the lead plaintiff in the case, for deciding not to cancel the cruise. “A reasonable person in [Carnival’s] position would have cancelled the cruise,” the judge said in a summary.

The ruling is the first class action victory against a cruise operator globally, according to Shine Lawyers, the Brisbane-based law firm representing more than 1,000 Australian plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Carnival was also found to have made “misleading representations” that it was “reasonably safe” for passengers aboard the cruise and in relation to its screening and sanitation protocols, according to the summary published on Wednesday.

The federal judge ordered Carnival to cover Karpik’s out-of-pocket medical expenses of $4,423.48 plus interest but concluded that the “non-economic loss” from her mild Covid-19 infection was not sufficient to require the payment of damages. Karpik, a retired nurse, had claimed more than $360,000 in damages in part due to the distress caused by her husband Henry’s two-month stay in hospital after he also contracted Covid-19 onboard.

Other plaintiffs in the suit, which is being funded by UK-based litigation fund Balance Legal Capital, include other passengers, executors acting on behalf of passengers who died of coronavirus and close family members. Some 2,651 passengers took the 12-day voyage, which sailed from Australia to New Zealand before returning.

This year, 31.5mn passengers globally will take a cruise, rebounding above 2019 demand levels for the first time since the pandemic struck, according to projections by the Cruise Lines International Association, an industry body.

Not only did the pandemic ground the fleets of all the major cruise operators but the industry took significant reputational damage, as scientists and health officials blamed it for superspreading events.

The Ruby Princess was for a long period the source of the biggest coronavirus outbreak in Australia, which closed its borders for much of the pandemic to stave off the virus. A 2020 inquiry by the New South Wales government concluded there were “inexcusable” and “inexplicable” errors that led to the outbreak. 

Carnival Australia said it was “considering” the judgment “in detail”, adding: “The pandemic was a difficult time in Australia’s history, and we understand how heartbreaking it was for those affected.”

Vicky Antzoulatos, joint head of class actions at Shine Lawyers, hailed the ruling as a “victory” for Karpik and called on Carnival to “do the right thing and compensate all the passengers rather than prolong the matter through further litigation”.