Lets Sue!

[bepsf]

Girlfriend, ease up on the submit button....:D

 

That's IT!

I'm gonna sue NMnita for cluttering up the boards w/ her submit button! :eek: ;)

 

 

 

So lets get this str8:

 

I can marry someone (preferably w/ lots of cash in the bank), take him on a cruise & dump his drunkenness overboard, then get so wasted myself that I fall asleep in a corridor...

...then claim that I wasn't treated 'nicely' by the Turkish Police and the cruiseline dressed me like a clown - so I can come home and land on all sorts of talk shows and "news" programs (were these paid appearances?) to repeatedly spew venom against anyone and everyone who was within 300 yards of the whole ugly mess...

...then I can sue and get a hefty payday in exchange for shutting up and not going on TV anymore and not writing a book about it, plus I get to inherit his wealth.

 

Sounds like a new career path.

:rolleyes:

[RuthC]

You summed it up nicely, Brian. The only thing you left out is she also doesn't have to spend her life picking up his dirty socks. :rolleyes:

[Taylor]

That's IT!

I'm gonna sue NMnita for cluttering up the boards w/ her submit button! :eek: ;)

 

 

 

So lets get this str8:

 

I can marry someone (preferably w/ lots of cash in the bank), take him on a cruise & dump his drunkenness overboard, then get so wasted myself that I fall asleep in a corridor...

...then claim that I wasn't treated 'nicely' by the Turkish Police and the cruiseline dressed me like a clown - so I can come home and land on all sorts of talk shows and "news" programs (were these paid appearances?) to repeatedly spew venom against anyone and everyone who was within 300 yards of the whole ugly mess...

...then I can sue and get a hefty payday in exchange for shutting up and not going on TV anymore and not writing a book about it, plus I get to inherit his wealth.

 

Sounds like a new career path.

:rolleyes:

 

and a book and movie deal???

[Pam in CA]

Don't forget all those people on the QM2 who threatened to sue because their itinerary had to miss two ports because of mechanical problems and they didn't like the offered compensation. Cunard caved in.

 

I'm sorry for the Smith family as I believe they've received poor legal advice and have been encouraged by a publicity-seeking legal shark who doesn't know or understand diddlysquat about the cruise industry or maritime law. I believe they think they're doing the right thing but in reality come off looking like idiots.

 

It's sad that almost every case of someone going overboard involves liquor and over-indulging. Not just passengers but crew members as well. I'm not against drinking and having a good time but sometimes people leave personal responsibility on the dock when they board a ship.

[aaerobear]

Here is a good question (at least in my mind) Say you are in a hotel bar and have had one or two to many, the bartender stops serving you and, of course, you get nasty. Then you go to your room and hit the mini-bar and decide to go skinny diping in the hotel pool, not caring that it is 34 stories down to the pool. You get naked and take that dive into the pool. You miss the pool by about 500 feet and make a mess of the parking lot.

 

Your family sues the hotel for getting you drunk. Who is RESPONSIBLE?????

 

I know it is unlikely, but thats what this whole thing is starting to look like.

[serendipity1499]

You summed it up nicely, Brian. The only thing you left out is she also doesn't have to spend her life picking up his dirty socks. :rolleyes:

 

 

Ohhhh that's funny!

 

And she can eat all of the chocolate left on HIS pillow, for the rest of the cruise...;)

[Sunshine91]

I'm making an assumption here that Jennifer Smith sued RCCL because she's now a widow & lost her husband & source of income etc etc etc. For what are the parents/rest of the family suing? Yes, they lost a grown son, but certainly weren't depending on him for financial support. I mean, how far does the definition of "family" extend - to third cousins?

 

Navy Chief - Was there any local understanding and/or support for the Smith family suing? Anyone else hear of anything? This thread was all in the negative. Thanks.

[Navy_Chief]

It really was a very short snippet on the 6 o'clock broadcast and didn't get that much coverage other than a 20 second reminder of the background story and the fact the Smith family, from Greenwich, had filed a suit in the matter. No comments from the family or anything like that. It certainly didn't make the national news at 6:30, they have much more important things to report. Hence, my comment that I really didn't feel it was a topic worth mentioning here. I would rather pass on experiances I had to someone new to cruising instead of taking up space with the negitive stuff on the industry, the media does enough of that on their own (again, nothing against Brian for posting it).

[CCCM]

S7S has it correct about MA. Decade or so ago, my sister was GM of a restaurant and since her name was on the liquor license for the restaurant, she was named in suit. Even if someone walked into restaurant and was denied a drink because of their state of drunkeness and you let them leave your restaurant is still responsible for the accident that follows.

 

aaerobear has the situation close to exact hotel equivalent of what the Smiths did.

 

Now the day it was settled Nancy Grace did have it on her show, but I didn't have much time to listen it just said Smith family and RCI settled.

 

What would have been classier is the Smiths working with the cruise line to:

1. Educate people about their situation.

2. Understand if anything can be put in place by the cruising industry to prevent this from happening.

3. If she felt she was poorly treated, then how to change that.

 

We hear of all sorts of lawsuits all the time. We need to change from lets sue to lets work together.

[jhannah]

We need to change from lets sue to lets work together.

Wouldn't that be nice! However, the thought of "easy money" drowns out everything else in these situations. It's the whole "you owe me" mentality.

[arcone]

http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/breadcrumbs/cruisecriticnews.gif

Home > News > Family of Missing Honeymooner (finally) Files Suit; Bride Settles Separately http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/pixel.gifhttp://www.cruisecritic.com/images/news/cruisecriticnews3.gifEmail This Print This Newsletterhttp://www.cruisecritic.com/images/pixel.gifJune 30, 2006http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/pixel.gifFamily of Missing Honeymooner (finally) Files Suit; Bride Settles SeparatelyNow that the family of George Smith -- the missing honeymooner whose trip on Brilliance of the Seas last summer ended in tragedy -- has finally filed the lawsuit it's been threatening against Royal Caribbean for what seems like eons, get ready for a new spate of stories on the subject.

 

In a separate action, George Smith's wife Jennifer Hagel Smith has settled with Royal Caribbean. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the deal is subject to approval by a Connecticut probate court.

 

As most readers will recall, George Smith disappeared from Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas last July 5, and is presumed dead. What was different about this case, as opposed to other relatively common "passenger disappearances," is that blood stains on a cover over tenders indicate that the circumstances surrounding his death are, er, unusual. No charges, we hasten to add, have yet been proven.

 

According to media reports, the Smith family, which has been oddly hostile to their daughter-in-law through the whole process, is filing the lawsuit because of emotional distress resulting from Royal Caribbean's "shocking" and "atrocious" behavior. They also allege that Royal Caribbean contaminated the crime scene.

 

In response, Royal Caribbean has issued a statement, which we reprint in its entirety:

 

"'These are recklessly false charges that have already been proven wrong by the facts we publicly disclosed months ago,' said Adam Goldstein, president of Royal Caribbean International.

 

"We sympathize with the Smith family regarding the tragic loss of their son. However, this lawsuit is an unconscionable attack on our company and its employees, who have done everything they could to fully support the authorities and their investigations.

 

"Royal Caribbean has long anticipated this lawsuit filed by the parents and sister of George Smith IV. Over the past year, the public has been exposed to an ongoing litany of false, misleading and unsubstantiated allegations regarding the disappearance of George Smith. We responded in a comprehensive manner, and to this day no one has shown our information to be inaccurate in any way. Clearly, some of the parties involved in this matter have attempted to substitute media proceedings for legal ones. Fortunately, a court of law will afford a judicious, unbiased and legally supervised process that will accurately deal with the facts surrounding this tragedy. It will also bring to bear one of the most distinguishing aspects of our legal system; its use of sworn testimony, under oath, with sanctions for perjury. While we continue to work diligently to assist the FBI in its investigation, and we continue to extend our deepest sympathy to Jennifer Hagel Smith and the Smith family, we look forward to proving that the claims in this lawsuit are false."

 

Some key facts that show beyond a doubt that the allegations in this lawsuit are false include the following:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/star2.bmp The Captain took immediate steps to preserve the scene, including the sealing of the canopy and stateroom and stationing a guard outside them.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/star2.bmp Royal Caribbean promptly reported the possibility of a missing guest to the Turkish authorities, the FBI and the U.S. Consulate.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/star2.bmp The Turkish police, in liaison with the FBI, conducted a complete forensic investigation onboard the ship, including photographs, fingerprints, blood samples and the collection of other evidence.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/star2.bmp The FBI was at the ship the day of the disappearance and boarded the ship in Piraeus, Greece, on July 7 to conduct a further examination of the Smith stateroom.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/star2.bmp The Captain only cleaned the canopy after he was twice released to do so by the Turkish police, and only after the Turkish police completed its forensic investigation.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/star2.bmp It is the FBI's normal practice when such international incidents occur to defer to local police authorities, working in conjunction with the FBI, to conduct the initial investigation and turn over the results to the FBI. The FBI confirmed this policy as recently as a Congressional hearing on December 13, 2005.

 

Based on these and many other irrefutable facts, Royal Caribbean is confident it will prevail in this lawsuit.

 

We'll keep you posted.

[Navy_Chief]

Again, this is a large waste of board space, no need to drag it all out again. Thanks for your effort, but no thanks. Let's just forget this and move on, next "positive" question about crusing on HAL ships please.........

[newmexicoNita]

If a person gets drunk at a bar in, say, Fort Lauderdale, and gets in his/her car and drives home and slams into another car ... isn't the bar held liable for what the drunken person did?

Just wondering.

I don't know about Florida, but in most states, yes; the point is, should they be held responsible? If someone comes to my home, has already had a couple of drinks (I am unaware of this) we offer him/her a couple more, the guest leaves, hits someone I can be sued as well? Where does the responsibility for our actions as adults come into play? Most people know when they have had too much to drink, I certainly know when I have and would never think of getting behind the wheel. NMNita

[Cracker Ken]

In today's civil court, it call comes down to this:

 

• Nobody is responsible for themselves.
  
• It's always somebody elses fault.
  
• Nobody is responsible for watching where they are going.
  
• In some manner or another, somewhere, somehow, there's always somebody or some entity responsible for everything that happens to you - AS LONG AT THAT PERSON OR COMPANY HAS LOTS OF MONEY.

That's the way it is, and that's what's happening with most of the suit we read about on the board. I suspect that most of the cruise lines are self insured up to a point, so most of this money comes out of their pockets, unless the suit gets really huge. As someone else said, we pay the claimants.

 

Ken

[the2ofus]

How interesting to find this thread on the board today. In church this morning, our pastor spoke about George Washington, the soldier, leader, moral and upstanding citizen.

 

While the story of the cherry tree is untrue, having been invented many years after his death, it still exemplifies the character of the man.

 

George Washington felt a moral obligation throughout his life to continually work toward becoming the most moral and ethical person he was capable of being.

 

How sad that there are not more people of such character in the public eye today. Instead our young people are encouraged to take self-indulgent, self-centered and shallow media and sports stars as their role models. Why are we surprised at the lawsuits when self-indulgence has tragic consequences?

[Bramcruiser]

If a person gets drunk at a bar in, say, Fort Lauderdale, and gets in his/her car and drives home and slams into another car ... isn't the bar held liable for what the drunken person did?

Just wondering.

 

Well we were all lead to believe that considering how the laws and court rulings were leaning. It was that way once here in Ontario, Canada. However, earlier this year a higher court ruled that a host could not be liable for an accident that someone who got drunk and drove home ended up in. So.......................the story might not be over.

 

Bottom line though is that its time that people start taking responsibility for their own stupid actions. In the matter of these recent acts of suing cruise lines I fail to see where a cruise line should be held liable for someone's suicide/disappearance and weather-related reroutings. These cruiselines work in the back of the workshops building hurricane making machines that they deliberately push a storm into their path? They count too many people on board their ships and push someone off to lower the count?

 

You want a silly lawsuit? A few years ago a woman in Hamilton, Ontario tried to sue her doctor because she tried to claim that he was to promise her a pain-free delivery when she was pregnant. Well the court of public opinion was certainly not on her side. She became the laughing stock of the media and that was most likely the only reason she quietly dropped the lawsuit. If these other silly lawsuits were laughed at in the same manner then I think more people would be burying their heads into the sand.

 

What feeds this society of "me first" and "someone owes me". Well a string of successful silly lawsuits and ambulance chasing lawyers who advertise 24/7 about your right to sue just fuel this hysteria. As Susan Powter once proclaimed "Stop the Insanity!"

[AlohaPride]

How interesting to find this thread on the board today. In church this morning, our pastor spoke about George Washington, the soldier, leader, moral and upstanding citizen.

 

While the story of the cherry tree is untrue, having been invented many years after his death, it still exemplifies the character of the man.

 

George Washington felt a moral obligation throughout his life to continually work toward becoming the most moral and ethical person he was capable of being.

 

How sad that there are not more people of such character in the public eye today. Instead our young people are encouraged to take self-indulgent, self-centered and shallow media and sports stars as their role models. Why are we surprised at the lawsuits when self-indulgence has tragic consequences?

 

AMEN! Couldn't have said it better.