Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
In a year rife with outbreaks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vessel Sanitation Program’s workforce has been entirely slashed.
All full-time employees with the program have been laid off, a move that will greatly impact the agency’s ability to investigate outbreaks and conduct health inspections on cruise ships, according to reporting from CBS Miami. The team inspects large vessels at least twice a year.
The dismissals are a part of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan to issue layoffs to public health agency employees. This plan includes over 2,400 employees at the CDC. Despite the cuts, officials with the Department of Health and Human Services claims that the cruise ship work “will be able to continue.”
Following the decision, a smaller group of 12 officers with the Public Health Service will stay on to inspect and respond to outbreaks on cruise ships. The move allegedly came as a surprise to CDC officials, according to CBS, because the team’s staff is not paid via taxpayer dollars but from fees paid by cruise lines. One officer told reporters that the program is short-staffed as it while another said the response from HHS officials is “frustrating.”
When news of the layoffs emerged, the agency was in the middle of responding to two outbreaks. These officials are on board to ensure that medical centers, water systems and kitchens are adhering to safety and sanitation guidelines.
Outbreaks on Cruise Ships
An illness outbreak on a cruise ship is defined by the CDC as one that has at least 3% of passengers or crew experiencing symptoms. In late 2024, the CDC reported outbreaks of Legionnaires’ Disease linked to separate ships and numerous norovirus outbreaks. The latter caused hundreds of passengers and crew to fall victim to horrible gastrointestinal illnesses, reporting the worst year for these kinds of illnesses in over a decade.
In December alone, 781 passengers and 109 crew reported symptoms of norovirus – a gastrointestinal illness that carries symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting. There were over a dozen outbreaks of gastrointestinal illnesses on ships in 2024.
There were over 2,000 passengers and over 200 crew who got sick in 2024. In 2023, there were 14 outbreaks.
Leesfield & Partners
In over 48 years of personal injury practice, Leesfield & Partners has seen just about every manner of injury that can occur on a cruise ship. From devastating falls to cruise ship excursions gone wrong and medical malpractice by cruise ship doctors, these shocking cases have all been handled with care by our skilled attorneys.
As common carriers, cruise ships have a heightened responsibility when it comes to safeguarding those on board. Due to this nondelegable responsibility, these ships are held to higher standards and must ensure that passengers are safe from harm. This means that cruise ships must keep their decks, hallways and cabins free from hazards and that they have proper staffing to provide for adequate security and other necessary staff. If a cruise line fails to ensure that a ship in their fleet is kept in a condition that is reasonably safe for passengers – as was the case for an 8-year-old who fell from an interior balcony on board – then that ship can be held liable for damages.
In that case, our client’s daughter leaned over the improperly maintained railing and fell five stories to her death. A confidential settlement was reached with the cruise line.
A similar example of a cruise line leaving passengers vulnerable to injury by not ensuring their ship is in proper, safe condition involves a 9-year-old playing basketball. In this case, the 9-year-old tried to catch an out-of-bounds ball and collided with an unpadded, steel grommet.
Due to his injuries, the child sustained a catastrophic brain injury. Leesfield & Partners attorneys secured a $2,500,000 recovery for the boy and his family in that case.
Similarly, a 62-year-old client suffered a head injury on a ship while playing pickleball. In that case, attorneys were able to settle for $500,000.
One case involved a mother and daughter who purchased a parasailing excursion aboard their cruise ship. While the two were up in the air, an improperly maintained piece of equipment snapped, resulting in the pair plummeting to the water. Tragically, the mother was killed and her daughter sustained life-altering brain injuries.
Leesfield & Partners obtained a $7.25 million settlement in that case.
In another devastating cruise ship excursion case, a family was on shore with their special needs adult son when the bus they were on was involved in a rollover crash. Not only did the ship fail to properly maintain the bus that the group was on, but they also failed to employ a competent driver. Instead, the driver in this case recklessly caused the bus to go off the mountain, ejecting our client’s son. He died from his injuries.
A settlement of over $2.9 million was obtained for the family in that case.
In addition to ensuring that their ship and other areas are properly maintained, cruise lines also have a duty to protect passengers from crimes that can occur on board. Previously, Leesfield & Partners represented a Canadian woman who was brutally raped in her cabin by a cruise ship employee. This employee used his keycard access to passengers’ cabins to gain entry into the woman’s room before assaulting her.
A multi-million-dollar recovery was obtained for the woman in this case.
In an ongoing case being handled by Bernardo Pimentel, a Trial Attorney at the firm, an employee was found to be filming passengers in their private cabin bathrooms. The employee was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for filming passengers, many of whom were children.
The egregious violation has left our client, one of the victims filmed without their knowledge, in a state of panic. Following the ordeal, she has been left with a “crushing, devastating, terrifying feeling.”
For Mr. Pimentel, there needs to be more accountability to prevent this issue going forward.
“Terminating the employee is not enough,” he said. “That does not stop this from occurring in the future.”
