Amy v. Carnival Corp.

360 F. Supp. 3d 1345
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedOctober 29, 2018
DocketCase No. 18-cv-20324-UU
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 360 F. Supp. 3d 1345 (Amy v. Carnival Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Amy v. Carnival Corp., 360 F. Supp. 3d 1345 (S.D. Fla. 2018).

Opinion

URSULA UNGARO, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

THIS CAUSE comes before the Court upon Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (D.E. 47) (the "Motion").

THE COURT has considered the Motion, Plaintiff's Response in opposition to the Motion (D.E. 59) (the "Response"), Plaintiff's Statement of Disputed Material Facts in opposition to the Motion (D.E. 56) ("Plaintiff's Facts"), Defendant's Reply in support of the Motion (D.E. 61) (the "Reply"), and the pertinent portions of the record and is otherwise fully advised in the premises.

For the reasons set forth below, Defendant's Motion is GRANTED.

BACKGROUND

The material facts, viewed in the light most favorable to Plaintiff, are as follows:

A. The Accident Aboard the Carnival Liberty

Plaintiff, Elizabeth Amy, brings this one-count1 negligence action on behalf of her minor daughter, W.A.2 W.A. was three years old at the time of the subject accident.3

On June 13, 2016, several members of the Amy family boarded the Carnival Liberty , a cruise ship operated by Defendant Carnival Corporation ("Carnival").4 The family members on the Liberty included W.A., her father Wade Amy, her mother Elizabeth Amy, her grandmother Earlene, and her five siblings.5 The family, including W.A., went to the Liberty 's Deck 14 for the bon voyage send-off party as the ship left the port to begin the cruise.6 Elizabeth Amy watched the female children, including *1349W.A., while Wade Amy watched their male children.7

The female Amys posed for some photos, and then walked over to join their male counterparts.8 Ten to fifteen seconds later, W.A. fell-either over the top of the railing, or through the lower courses9 of the railing-to the deck below.10 W.A. sustained, inter alia , a skull fracture, impact to her brain, and bleeding inside her skull.11

At the time of the fall, Wade Amy had been showing the children (including W.A.) the nearby Coast Guard vessels.12 He saw his daughter fall out of the corner of his eye, to the left of him.13 Mr. Amy would have immediately prevented W.A. from climbing the railing if he had been watching her.14 Mrs. Amy did not see W.A. climb on the railing, nor go through or over the railing, nor fall.15

B. The Subject Railings

The railing's horizontal courses were 200 millimeters, i.e. , 7.87 inches, apart.16 The railing's overall height was 43.3 inches tall.17 Carnival had knowledge of these dimensions prior to the incident.18 The general purpose for the location of the railing on the ship was to prevent someone from falling on the deck below.19

The Liberty (including its railings) was built by the Fincantieri company.20 Carnival, as the owner and purchaser of the ship, had at least some degree of control over the fit and finish of the ship, including what the guard rails would look like.21 Presumably, if Carnival had told Fincantieri that it wanted its guard rail to have some climb protection built into it or had demanded that the space between the courses be four inches instead of seven or eight inches, Fincantieri would have complied.22

Carnival's general purpose for its guard rails includes "being efficient to contain humans"-including small children-"on one side from getting to the other side."23 Generally speaking, Carnival concedes that "to have a guard rail that for whatever reason would not be efficient to contain foreseeable human beings on one side, and not allow them to get to the other side...would be dangerous."24 Again, generally, *1350Carnival knows that if a guard rail "has sufficient space between the lower intermediate railings," and if a small human being "were permitted to climb or crawl," that small human being "in theory...could get through there, if he or she wants to."25 Carnival has always wanted to have "enough" lower rails on its guard rails to contain children.26 But Carnival itself had never, prior to the incident, researched how narrow the spaces between the balusters needed to be to prevent a child passing through.27 And Carnival's understanding was that "any guard rail" (including one with plexiglass) "is climbable."28

Carnival's corporate representative, Suzanne Vazquez, testified that Carnival was unaware of a single allegation of a child going through the courses on a railing.29 She testified that in her 14 years with the company, 55 million passengers had sailed with Carnival, and W.A. was the first person ever alleged to have fallen through the courses of a railing.30 Nevertheless, she also testified that "clearly it's easy to assume that a child has tried to climb on the guard rails on any cruise ship," including Carnival ships.31 Ms. Vazquez testified that, if somehow a child were to go through or over the subject guard rail, it was obvious that the child could be injured.32 But prior to the suit, she had never received any actual allegations that the subject courses were in fact wide enough to allow a toddler or small child to get through.33

Similarly, Ms. Vazquez testified that its fleet-wide databases do not contain any record of complaints of children falling (or almost falling) through or over railings for the three years before W.A.'s fall.34 However, the databases do not (indeed, could not) capture unreported attempts by children to either climb or get through open courses on Carnival ships, i.e. , "near misses."35 As a result, Carnival does not know how many kids have actually attempted to climb or crawl through or over its railings.36

C. Industry Standards

The requirements for the railing's dimensions are governed at least in part by the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act, 46 U.S.C. § 3507 et seq. , and the International Convention on Load Lines ("ICLL").37 The ICLL was promulgated by the International Maritime Organization, which also created the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea.38 Many of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea's requirements are binding on cruise vessels like the Liberty.39

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Bluebook (online)
360 F. Supp. 3d 1345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/amy-v-carnival-corp-flsd-2018.