Navigating A Course To Justice

Passengers Sue After Contracting Food Poisoning Aboard Cruise Ship

On Behalf of | May 11, 2020 | Firm News

An LA County couple has filed a lawsuit against Princess Cruises after they allegedly got sick from food products they purchased on their cruise. They accuse the cruise line of negligence, fraud, breach of implied and express warranties, and well as premises liability. The couple claims that after they purchased food on the cruise, they became violently ill from “viruses, disease-carrying pestilence, and contamination.” This food they claim was manufactured, delivered, and packaged aboard a Princess cruise ship.

Food Poisoning Lawsuits

Most of the same rules that apply to other venues also apply to cruise ships. Restaurants, for example, are liable for the wellbeing of their customers when they serve them tainted food. However, damages in these cases aren’t usually very high. A person becomes ill for a couple of days and then they recover completely. Even if you’re 100% certain that contaminated food caused your illness, you still have the burden of proving that in court.

Princess Cruises will likely respond to the lawsuit by claiming that their food was not responsible for the illness the plaintiffs suffered. Even if the plaintiffs can prove that Princess Cruises caused their illness, they will likely only be entitled to compensation for the cruise, minimal pain and suffering damages, and lost wages (if they missed any time from work). The cruise line should have offered to refund the plaintiff’s money at the time or given them free tickets to another cruise, but apparently, that didn’t happen.

Are Food Poisoning Lawsuits Worth Pursuing?

While food poisoning certainly isn’t fun and no one wants to go through that, food poisoning lawsuits don’t generally tend to have large verdicts associated with them. However, food poisoning can lead to complications which can potentially be very serious. Whether or not a food poisoning lawsuit is worth pursuing depends entirely on what your damages are.

For instance, if someone becomes violently ill after eating at a restaurant and they have to be taken to the hospital to receive treatment, then it may be worth their while to file a lawsuit and try to get some compensation back for their medical expenses. Those who miss time from work could also be compensated, but food poisoning doesn’t tend to last very long.

Since pain and suffering damages are compensated on a per diem basis, and food poisoning only has a tendency of lasting for a couple of days, pain and suffering damages don’t tend to be very large in food poisoning cases.

Further, the plaintiffs will have a difficult time proving that food poisoning was the culprit and their case would be helped if others aboard the ship also reported symptoms. To date, it’s unclear that anyone else was affected by the allegedly contaminated food.

Talk to a Miami Cruise Ship Injury Attorney

If you’ve been injured aboard a cruise ship, you may be able to recover damages for your injuries. Call Miami admiralty & maritime lawyer Michael F. Guilford today to schedule a free consultation.