Marianne Malley v. Royal Caribbean Cruises LTD

713 F. App'x 905
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 9, 2017
Docket17-11437 Non-Argument Calendar
StatusUnpublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 713 F. App'x 905 (Marianne Malley v. Royal Caribbean Cruises LTD) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marianne Malley v. Royal Caribbean Cruises LTD, 713 F. App'x 905 (11th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Plaintiff Marianne Malley fell while attempting to step onto a high coaming on Defendant Royal Caribbean Cruise’s ship. A coaming is a raised divider. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant was negligent for failing to warn of the coaming’s unreasonable height, which created a dangerous situation in which passengers were likely to fall, and for creating a negligent mode of operation. The district court granted Defendant’s motion for summary judgment and Plaintiff appealed. After careful review, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

In February 2015, Plaintiff and her family took a cruise on Defendant’s ship Allure of the Seas. Two days after embarking on the cruise, Plaintiff and her cousin Francine Patane attended a cocktail party on the ship’s helicopter deck. In, front of the helicopter deck’s entrance, a crew member handed out champagne and punch. After receiving their drink, guests were invited to walk onto the deck. Plaintiff took a glass of champagne, holding the glass in one hand and her purse in the other. She proceeded to the deck’s entrance. In order to access the helicopter deck, passengers had to step onto a high coaming (a raised divider). The coaming had handrails; the evidence is inconsistent as to whether the coaming was marked with yellow and black tape.

Plaintiff attempted to walk onto the helicopter deck. Because she was holding a glass of champagne and her purse, she was unable to use the handrail. Although Plaintiff could clearly see the coaming and realized that she had to step onto it, she underestimated how high the step was. As Plaintiff attempted to step onto the coam-ing, she did not lift her leg high enough. Her foot was too low to land on top of the coaming, causing her to fall forward. Plaintiff and her cousin both attest that it was impossible to tell how high the coaming was until they were in the process of stepping onto it.

Neither party submitted measurements or clear pictures of the coaming. Plaintiff alleges that the coaming was the height of “two normal steps” and her cousin stated that the coaming was “at least a foot tall.”

Plaintiff was seriously injured by the fall. She hurt her nose and had significant bruising on her face. She also injured the entire left side of her body, including her shoulder, ribs, and knee. She fractured her shoulder, requiring a sling.

B. Procedural Background

Pursuant to the forum selection clause on her ticket, Plaintiff brought this negligence action in the Southern District of Florida. The district court granted Defendant’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that the coaming was not unreasonably high and that, in any event, the height was open and obvious..The court denied Plaintiffs subsequent motion for reconsideration.

On appeal, Plaintiff contends that there is a genuine dispute over whether Defendant negligently failed to warn, whether Defendant was negligent in creating and allowing an unreasonably dangerous condition, and whether Defendant had a negligent mode of operation.

H. STANDARD OF REVIEW

This Court reviews the denial of summary judgment de novo and utilizes the same legal standards as the district court. Feliciano v. City of Miami Beach, 707 F.3d 1244, 1247 (11th Cir. 2013). We grant “summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any •material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). In making our determination, we view all facts and resolve all doubts in favor of the nonmoving party. Feliciano, 707 F.3d at 1247.

III. DISCUSSION

Because Plaintiffs injury occurred on navigable waters, federal admiralty law governs this dispute. Everett v. Carnival Cruise Lines, 912 F.2d 1355, 1358 (11th Cir. 1990). Cruise ships have a duty of care to their passengers. But “[a] carrier by sea [ ] is not liable to passengers as an insurer, [] only for its negligence.” Kornberg v. Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc., 741 F.2d 1332, 1334 (11th Cir. 1984). To prevail on a maritime tort claim, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant had a duty of care, the defendant breached that duty, the breach was the actual and proximate cause of the plaintiffs injury, and the plaintiff suffered actual harm. Sorrels v. NCL (Bahamas) Ltd., 796 F.3d 1275, 1280 (11th Cir. 2015). A cruise ship only has a duty to protect passengers from dangers that it has notice of:

[T]he benchmark against which a shipowner’s behavior must be measured is ordinary reasonable care under the circumstances, a standard which requires, as a prerequisite to imposing liability, that the carrier have had actual or constructive notice of the risk-creating condition, at least where, as here, the menace is one commonly encountered on land and not clearly linked to nautical adventure.

Keefe v. Bahama Cruise Line, Inc., 867 F.2d 1318, 1322 (11th Cir. 1989); See also Everett, 912 F.2d at 1358-59 (reversing the district court for failing to require notice).

Plaintiffs negligence argument focuses on the coaming’s unreasonable height and the circumstances surrounding her fall. She claims that Defendant was negligent for handing out champagne before (instead of after) passengers crossed the coaming, which meant that passengers did not have a free hand to use the handrails. Further, no crew member stood next to the coaming to help passengers step onto it. Plaintiff alleges that these acts and the coaming’s unreasonable height constituted three types of negligence: (1) failure to warn, (2) negligently creating or allowing a dangerous condition, and (3) negligent mode of operation. We address each in turn.

A. Failure to Warn

Under federal admiralty law, a cruise ship must warn of known dangers that are not open and obvious. See Keefe, 867 F.2d at 1322; Deperrodil v. Bozovic Marine, Inc., 842 F.3d 352, 357 (5th Cir. 2016). If the cruise ship did not have notice of the danger or if the danger is open and obvious to a reasonable person, the ship has no duty to warn. See Keefe, 867 F.2d at 1322; Deperrodil, 842 F.3d at 357. In order to defeat summary judgment, Plaintiff therefore must prove that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether (1) Defendant had notice of the unreasonable height of the coaming and (2) the coam-ing’s height was open and obvious.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
713 F. App'x 905, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marianne-malley-v-royal-caribbean-cruises-ltd-ca11-2017.