Disney Cruise Line Must Pay Former Emoloyee $4 Million for Injury

[JustADisneyDude]

First things first, happy new year to you all. It's almost 1:00pm here in the UK, and a news story about DCL caught my eye. So! DCL must pay a former employee $4 million.

"Disney Cruise Line (DCL) must pay a former employee $4 million dollars, a jury in Brevard County, Florida ruled. Back in September 2013, Maria Ana Reis Martins was a dining room server about the Disney Dream cruise ship (Dream) that sailed to the Caribbean from Port Canaveral."

For some reason, I still can't link the actual article. BUT! If you google Disney Cruise Line Must Pay Former Emoloyee $4 Million for Injury by Orlando Theme Park Zone, you'll find it.

I created this post because I wanted to hear (aka read) your opinions on the story. Thank you for taking the time to read my post!

Have a magical day!

 

[Karin1984]

Let's see if this works (It's 2 PM in the Netherlands ;-) ) https://********************.com/20...ust-pay-former-emoloyee-4-million-for-injury/

In short: Employee got hit by a car while on shore in Nassau, medical team didn't diagnose her correctly and said she was fit for work. Apparently she wasn't.
According to the jury: 70% DCL's negligence, 30% employee.
1 million $ pain & suffering, 2 million $ loss of income, 1 million $ punishment.

 

[Mathmagicland]

Happy new year! Just after 5am here in California. I saw this - can’t say I agree with the decision. Feels like a “deep pockets” decision to me, as DCL states the medical services staff is a separate thing and the staff charges for many services onboard. Why would the medical malpractice not come into play? Though I don’t know maritime law and medical situations.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Maritime law is in play because staff have limited options for treatment while onboard, and DCL hires and manages the medical care team.

 

[JustADisneyDude]

The thing that's mind boggling me is that if she has broken ribs, why is she continuing to work. I'd take it off sick, just to recover properly, I presume you still get paid off sick.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

The thing that's mind boggling me is that if she has broken ribs, why is she continuing to work. I'd take it off sick, just to recover properly, I presume you still get paid off sick.

She might be paid the piddling hourly/weekly wage but she'd be missing out on the real money, tips. So she probably dealt with the pain as long as she could. We don't have all the facts so I can't say why the onboard medical might or might not have identified the issue properly. There's plenty of blame to go around here. I wonder if the suit included the onboard medical service provider since they are a 3rd Party contract service.

 

[Brett Wyman]

The thing that's mind boggling me is that if she has broken ribs, why is she continuing to work. I'd take it off sick, just to recover properly, I presume you still get paid off sick.

The on-board DCL contracted medical team deemed her fit for work. That's literally the basis of the lawsuit. She was probably worried about repercussions or losing her job if she went against that decision.

 

[cvjw]

I am with the employee on this one. It seems Disney can be very stingy with their permitted time off for injuries.

Our head server on our last cruise on the fantasy was absent the first night of the cruise. Turns out he had an incident during dinner the night before and really hurt his wrist. Disney gave him 24 hours off. That was it. He struggled the other 7 nights of our cruise with his serving duties. I felt really bad for him. He tried to make the best of it, but I could tell he was still in pain and still had to carry in giant plates of food with his hurt wrist.

 

[insureman]

Happy new year! Just after 5am here in California. I saw this - can’t say I agree with the decision. Feels like a “deep pockets” decision to me, as DCL states the medical services staff is a separate thing and the staff charges for many services onboard. Why would the medical malpractice not come into play? Though I don’t know maritime law and medical situations.

Most likely DCL will subrogate against the company that supplies the medical team if they haven't been brought into this already.

 

[mab2012]

2 million lost wages! And that was for 70% fault. So the implication is that lost wages amounted to nearly 3 million.

I don't know what DCL servers get paid, but that is pretty absurd, even if you assume that she will be off work for an extended period.

1 million "punishment" when the woman was found to be partially at fault also seems like overkill, but US courts like to do that. Maybe she should have to pay a charity 300K to take responsibility for her portion of the blame.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

2 million lost wages! And that was for 70% fault. So the implication is that lost wages amounted to nearly 3 million.

I don't know what DCL servers get paid, but that is pretty absurd, even if you assume that she will be off work for an extended period.

If the injury limits the individual's ability to work in their usual occupation, lost wages is based on lifetime plus reasonable ability to be employed in another profession.

 

[declansdad]

The amounts are absurd. 2 million in lost wages for a server on a cruise ship is a huge stretch.