In the end result today, Royal Caribbean beat its former captain's widow and child in a court of law

The maritime lawyers here in Miami have been in a state of outrage following a recent decision from an appellate court in the Estate of Tore Myhra v. Royal Caribbean Cruises , Ltd. , Case No. 10-15840 (11th Cir. Sept. 21, 2011).
This case addressed the issue of whether a cruise line could legally enforce a forum selection federal travel regulations clause transferring the lawsuit to a court outside of the U.S., if the effect of the transfer were to limit the cruise line's liability for personal injury or death occurring on cruises.
There is a federal statute which clearly prohibits cruise lines from doing this. 46 U.S.C. federal travel regulations section 30509(a) states that attempts to limit liability by contractual terms in cases where the cruise ship calls on a U.S. port are illegal and unenforceable.
In the Myhra v. Royal Caribbean case, a passenger contracted what is described as a bacterial infection on the Liberty of the Seas cruise ship which led to his death. His widow filed suit in Miami where all lawsuits against this cruise line are filed. But the cruise line moved to dismiss the case, citing terms buried deep in the the passenger federal travel regulations ticket which specified the U.K. as the location for the lawsuit.
The lawyers for Mr. Myhra's widow argued that the fine print terms in the passenger ticket were not reasonably federal travel regulations communicated to Mr. Myhra, and even if they were, because the U.K. adopted the Athens Convention limiting the liability of cruise lines to a maximum of $75,000 (even including death cases), this clause violated 46 U.S.C. section 30509(a).
federal travel regulations But the Eleventh Circuit held that 46 U.S.C. section 30509(a) was not violated. In a tortuously reasoned opinion, it held that because it was not the cruise line limiting its liability, but rather a foreign country (the U.K.) which provided limited damages, the transfer to the U.K. didn't violate 30509(a). This is a rather federal travel regulations circuitous argument. After all, it was Royal Caribbean which inserted the U.K. into the ticket as the chosen forum. It did so because it knew that Britain would afford only limited damages to passengers in cases of injury federal travel regulations and death.
The South Florida Lawyers blog covered the story. An anonymous reader commented that the decision was more intellectual dishonesty from the 11th Circuit. Curiously, in a footnote to the decision, the court held that a different result might be reached if the passengers were a U.S. citizen who bought his ticket in the U.S., as opposed to a Brit who bought his ticket in Britain.
The case will be remembered as a result-oriented decision where the xenophobic appellate court's priority was to send the case away from the U.S. based on whatever justification it could scrap together.
Mr. Myhra was not just an average passenger. He was the former Captain (i.e., Master) federal travel regulations of several Royal Caribbean cruise ships. He mastered the Monarch of the Seas and was a captain of one of the cruise line's first cruise federal travel regulations ships, the Song of America .
By all accounts, Captain Myhra was a skilled mariner, a dedicated Royal Caribbean employee and a well respected captain who was liked by his fellow officers and crew members on the cruise ships on which he served as Master.
In 1998, Captain Myhra bravely sailed the Monarch of the Seas into the harbor in St. Maarten in the middle of the night to bring a sick passenger ashore for emergency medical treatment. But while the cruise ship was sailing federal travel regulations out under the command of another federal travel regulations officer, the vessel went off course and ran across a reef. The ship sustained heavy damage to the hull and began to take on water. federal travel regulations Captain Myhra took command of the ship and ground it to keep it from sinking.
In 1999, Captain Myhra resigned from Royal Caribbean. Even though he was not at the helm when the ship hit the reef, he took responsibility. Thereafter he began a successful camping business called Rose Farm Touring Camping Park in England with his wife, Susan, and their daughter.
A decade later, Captain Myhra returned to a Royal Caribbean cruise ship not as the captain but as a passenger with his wife aboard the Freedom of the Seas . Captain Myhra was exposed federal travel regulations to Legionnaires Disease along with another passenger due to the negligent manner federal travel regulations that the cruise line maintained its water supplies. Although infected, he was kept aboard the cruise federal travel regulations ship until the end of the cruise, only to die in a public hospital the next day.
Captain Myhra ended his career with Royal Caribbean trying to help a sick passenger in the middle of the night by diverting the cruise into port for emergency medical care, but ended his life sickened on a Royal Caribbean ship as a passenger.
But the irony and injustice does not stop there. Captain Myhra and his wife, Sue, a cruise ship purser herself federal travel regulations on Royal Caribbean ships, were Loyal-to-Royal friends to the cruise line. They were part of the Royal Caribbean family. I'm sure CEO Richard Fain knew them both on a first name basis.
Royal Caribbean denied liability and tried to place the blame elsewhere. It could have stepped up to the plate and paid Ms. Myhra and her daughter federal travel regulations a reasonable settlement and wished its friends and family members well. But instead, it paid its defense lawyers in Miami a vast sum of money to try and kick the lawsuit, which Ms. Myhra was forced federal travel regulations to file, out of the U.S.
In the end result today, Royal Caribbean beat its former federal travel regulations captain's widow and child in a court of law. The appellate court pronounced that their lawsuit for the wrongful-death-by-Legionnaire's-Disease-on-a-Miami-based-cruise-ship is somehow not welcome here in Miami where Royal Caribbean is headquartered.
Cruise line CEO Fain and President Adam Goldstein earned over $12,000,000 in 2010 while their cruise ships reduced costs across the fleet, including cost reductions due to fewer tests of its potable water on the Liberty of the Seas and other ships. Meanwhile Ms. Myhra is left to seek compensation in the U.K. for her dead husband and the dead father of her daughter.
He was a man with good intention. I had chance to work with the ship he sailed in the early '90s. This is a sad outcome knowing how money could thwart laws and intellect. I believe that when a man dies under your care, it knows no bound, the responsibility will always be yours. It doesn't matter where it happened, what nationality does he bear, what country he boarded or purchased his ticket, or what law affects what. The ship administration covers crew and passengers. Making wrong judgement in critical time that will lead to arrest of a man's life reflects wrong care and administration. A furtherance of this case by way of elevating to the next respectable court or possible federal travel regulations new venue for seeking grievance federal travel regulations is necessary.
This is very sad and I am really sorry to say that I once worked on this ship and had a near nervous breakdown... I ended my contract early, not sorry and never will be. It was the worst ship and company that I have ever worked for and the way they treat their staff is incredible slavery... they are making use of cheap labour and then still threatning crew when they don't do exactly what they are told to do and how to behave.... federal travel regulations sorry to say that it works most of the time as too many 3rd world countries, people gets employed and work incredible hours, with a smile for passengers... sad is all I can say...
"Curiously, in a footnote to the decision, the court held that a different result might be reached if the passengers were a U.S. citizen who bought his ticket in the U.S., as opposed to a Brit who bought his ticket in Britain." - Says it all really - DISGUSTING JUDGE..... I wonder what happened to the second passenger? Did he/she die? Was he/she American?
I was Captain's Tore waiter federal travel regulations when he was the Staff Captain on the Nordic Prince. I was on the Monarch when he saved our lives. He was different than most officers in as much as he was human and always respected the crew. A very fine Man, and shame on RCL for not honoring their responsability. I quit RCL in 2000 and that was the one of the best things I ever did. RIP Captain Tore.
Maritime & admiralty lawyer & attorney James M. Walker of Walker & O'Neill Law Firm, offering services related to injuries, sexual assaults, fires, federal travel regulations negligence, rapes & disappearances on cruise ships, pirate & terrorist attacks, missing passengers, shore excursions, wrongful federal travel regulations death and the Jones Act, serving cruise passengers, crew members, cabin attendants, utility workers, waiters, bar tenders, ship doctors and cleaners on cruise ships worldwide.
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