It was hardly smooth sailing, but a two-year legal battle over an ice-skating injury that occurred on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship has finally come to a hockey stop. (Lebron v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., No. 16-24687 (S.D. Fla. Dec. 18, 2018)). After being hit with a large share of an almost $700,000 jury verdict in October 2018 for a passenger's injuries, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. ("Royal Caribbean") performed a nifty pirouette when a Florida federal judge granted Royal Caribbean's motion for a directed verdict, thereby reversing the jury's decision against the cruise line. In doing so, the court ruled that there was "not sufficient evidence by which a reasonable jury could find that [Royal Caribbean] knew or should have known" about the ice rink conditions that caused the plaintiff's injuries.
The case stemmed from an incident in June 2016, in which Edgardo Lebron ("Plaintiff"), a passenger onboard Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Sea cruise ship, suffered a broken ankle while skating on the ship's ice rink. In the complaint, the plaintiff alleged that Royal Caribbean was negligent in failing to adequately warn passengers of the dangerous condition of the ice rink, failing to adequately train or supervise its staff, and failing to properly inspect and maintain both the ice rink and the ice skates that it provided to the ship's passengers. Specifically, the plaintiff claimed that one of the ice skates he was given had a broken lace and, thus, could not be laced to the top and that the surface of the ice in the rink had gouges in it, one of which caused plaintiff to fall. According to the complaint, the defendant's negligence with regard to the condition of the ice and skating equipment caused the plaintiff's injuries while ice skating.
Despite appearing to be a relatively straightforward tort case, the parties remained anchored to their positions and could not be swayed to a settlement through mediation. As a result, on September 25, 2018, the parties waded into the unpredictable waters of a jury trial. This decision to go to trial initially appeared to backfire for Royal Caribbean, as the jury entered a roughly $667,000 verdict for medical expenses and pain and suffering, among other things, against the company. The jury was not going to let the plaintiff glide away with the entire $667,000 verdict, however, as they found that the plaintiff was 35% responsible, thus lessening the damages payable by Royal Caribbean.
The jury verdict appeared to sink Royal Caribbean's chances of prevailing, but a motion for a directed verdict ultimately turned the tide of the litigation. In its motion, Royal Caribbean argued that there was no evidence by which a reasonable juror could conclude that Royal Caribbean knew or should have known about the gouges in the ice which, together with the broken skate lace, created the dangerous condition. In opposition, the plaintiff argued that the jury was adequately informed on the issue of notice and that the court should respect the jury's decision – however, the court was unconvinced, ultimately spotting several cracks in the plaintiff's arguments.
In granting Royal Caribbean's motion for a directed verdict, the court highlighted the reasons why no jury could find that the company had sufficient notice of a hazardous condition on the ice, including a lack of any prior reported problems with the ice, a lack of evidence showing how long the gouges existed on the ice, and the defendant's compliance with the industry standard of care regarding inspection of the ice (with the court stressing that reasonable care of the ice did not mean "constant" inspection). In its decision, the Florida district court emphasized that the "dangerous condition" at issue in the case was the combination of the defective ice skates provided to the plaintiff and the gouges in the ice rink. While there was sufficient evidence that Royal Caribbean knew or should have known about the defective skates, there was "not sufficient evidence for a jury to find that the defendant knew or should have known about the gouges in the ice that, together with the broken skate lace, created the dangerous condition."
Interestingly, a footnote in the decision suggests that the plaintiff's claim may ultimately have been tripped up as much by the plaintiff's own testimony as it was by Royal Caribbean's legal defense. The footnote quotes the plaintiff as testifying that: "If you ask me what caused my fall, I would tell you it's a combination of both things, the problem in the ice and the defect in the skate." This testimony ultimately led the court to hold that the issue at trial was whether the combination of the ice and the skate caused the plaintiff's accident. Ultimately, this standard required the plaintiff to perform a double axel to win the day – that is, demonstrate that the defendant had notice of both the broken skate laces and the gouge on the ice, which the plaintiff was unable to do.
In the end, no matter what ultimately swayed the court to rule in the defendant's favor, Royal Caribbean will be glad to have weathered the storm of a hard-fought jury trial. However, the cruise line is not in the clear yet, as the plaintiff filed a notice of appeal with the 11th Circuit on January 8, 2019 – suggesting that there may still be rough waters ahead.