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Is Cruise Line Responsible For Its Doctor’s Decisions?

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

July 29, 2007

The court will decide whether to hear the case when it reconvenes in October.

The long road to the High Court began in March 1997, when Elizabeth Carlisle of Ann Arbor, Mich. developed sharp abdominal pain on the second day of a Caribbean cruise.

Dr. Mauro Neri, the doctor aboard Carnival’s Ecstasy, insisted she had the flu and said he saw no evidence of appendicitis.

When the pain got worse, the family flew home – where the teen’s ruptured appendix was removed. The operation also caused her to be rendered sterile.

The case is hardly an isolated example. A study by the American Medical Association conducted a study that found glaring inadequacies in shipboard care.

For example, the study found that 27 percent of shipboard doctors and nurses lacked advanced training in treating heart attacks, the leading cause of death on ships. More than half the doctors and 72 percent of the nurses lacked advanced training in dealing with trauma."

The Carlisle family sued the cruise line, losing in Florida trial court, winning in a district appeals court, and then losing again in state supreme court.

The case coming before the U.S. Supreme Court challenges laws and precedents that immunize cruise lines against alleged malpractice by their doctors.

To be determined is whether Dr. Neri was an independent contractor or cruise line employee. Although he wore an officer’s uniform with four stripes on his epulets and was formally introduced at a welcome-aboard party, the doctor was not a Carnival employee, according to Florida’s highest court.

Citing previous cases, it said the cruise line was not liable for the medical negligence of the doctor on board. The fine print of the cruise ticket issued to the Carlisles supports that theory.

The ruling by the top court in the Sunshine State reversed the decision of Joseph Nesbitt, senior judge of Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal. Although he agreed that previous cases would favor the cruise line’s insistence that it was not responsible for its doctor’s decisions,

He also said times have changed. According to Judge Nesbitt, a doctor’s negligence at sea also shows negligence by the cruise line.

The Florida Supreme Court almost agreed.

"We find merit in the plantiffs’ argument and the reasoning of the District Court," wrote Justice Peggy Quince in her opinion, "(but) we must adhere to the federal principles of harmony and uniformity."

The ball is now in the U.S. Supreme Court – if it is willing to take the case.

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