What care is a cruise line obligated to its passengers?
The passenger’s claim for injuries against the cruise line is in negligence. The standard of care is that the cruise lines must exercise “reasonable care under the circumstances.” The operative words are “under the circumstances”. This is where the reasonable care standard may differ from land-based standards. A federal court has ruled that the “extent to which the circumstances surrounding maritime travel are different than those encountered in daily life and involve more danger to the passenger will determine how high a degree of care is reasonable in each case.” However, the cruise lines have no duty to warn of open and obvious dangers, such as no duty to warn a passenger of a ledge in the shower in their stateroom or cabin. The legal principle of comparative fault is applicable in cruise line passenger cases. This means that if a passenger is negligent as well as the cruise line, the passenger’s negligent behavior only reduces the amount of recovery, it does not prevent a recovery.
