A group of passengers has filed a $5.1m lawsuit against the owner and charterer of a ferry that suffered a fire off Puerto Rico, adding to the multi-million-dollar litigation in San Juan’s federal court.
Lawyer Alejandro Bellver Espinosa, who heads the Bellver Espinosa Law firm on the US island, lodged the case against Mexico’s Baja Ferries and US-based America Cruise Ferries over the August incident on the 950-passenger Caribbean Fantasy (built 1989), which led to the evacuation of 512 passengers and crew.
He writes in court papers that plaintiffs Shadi Tarek Abumoala, Policarpio Severino Caraballo and Caroline Severino Rivas should each receive $1.5m for physical and emotional suffering, as well as $200,000 in punitive damages.
Chaotic evacuation
As with other lawsuits filed by Bellver, legal papers describe a chaotic scene as crew led passengers into lifeboats and an escape slide, where the emergency equipment then had problems.
The lawsuit alleges that Abumoala has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, muscle pain, knee pain and insomnia, among other ailments.
Severino Rivas’s problems include pain in her left shoulder, tendinitis, heartburn and “phobia to water”, while Severino Caraballo has experienced fainting, dizziness, nausea and an inability to get close to the ocean.
Flurry of filings
The latest lawsuit adds to a string of cases that have been filed against Caribbean Fantasy owner Baja Ferries, charterer America Cruise Ferries and insurer Steamship Mutual.
America Cruise Ferries has sought to deflect claims to Baja Ferries, which has not filed any responses in the court. A spokesman for the owner could not be immediately reached for comment.
In recently filed court papers, America Cruise Ferries denied many of the allegations in the lawsuits, though it’s lawyers have admitted that a lifeboat had problems while being lowered the water and hit the hull, and that a lifeboat had a malfunctioning engine.
Primary source: Caribbean Fantasy civil complaint
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