A group of northern California residents is accusing Princess Cruises of negligence in its response to the COVID-19 outbreak on the Grand Princess, in a new lawsuit filed Wednesday in a San Francisco federal court.
The cruise line “chose to place profits over people, including the safety of their passengers, crew and the general public,” the lawsuit alleges, manifesting in “utter failure to provide even a modicum of care” to those onboard the Hawaiian island-hopping excursion that set sail from San Francisco.
Two passengers and one crew member have died and another 103 who were on board the ship have tested positive.
One plaintiff, Pamela Guisti of San Mateo County, became infected and required hospitalization in an intensive care unit.
The others — residents of San Francisco, San Mateo and Stanislaus counties — say they were “traumatized by the fear of developing COVID-19,” suffered emotional distress and could require future medical care.
In a statement, Princess Cruises said it does not comment on pending litigation.
“Princess Cruises has been sensitive to the difficulties the COVID-19 outbreak has caused to our guests and crew,” the company said in a statement. “Our response throughout this process has focused on the well-being of our guests and crew within the parameters dictated to us by the government agencies involved and the evolving medical understanding of this new illness.”
The lawsuit alleges the company of acting negligently when it knew the risk posed to a cruise ship if a pathogen were to get on board.
That’s what happened when a Placer County man boarded the vessel, bound for Mexico, on Feb. 11. A little more than a week later, he reported respiratory symptoms on board and, at the end of February, became California’s first victim from the coronavirus.
The Grand Princess returned to San Francisco on Feb. 21 and departed for Hawaii the same day with thousands of new passengers — but also 62 who remained on board from the voyage to Mexico, at least two of whom had been infected.
But the ship was not disinfected, the lawsuit alleges, nor were any passengers screened for symptoms. Passengers from the Mexico trip were allegedly informed of their potential exposure on Feb. 25, four days after the ship set sail for Hawaii, but those on board weren’t alerted for more than a week.
The lawsuit alleges the cruise line didn’t begin to take increased sanitary precautions until March 3 and didn’t issue a warning on board until March 4, the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency in California. It continued to host events on board, like a formal night with dinner, and didn’t begin to quarantine passengers until March 5, two weeks since they had boarded the boat.
At that point, the cruise ship attempted to return to port but stalled off the coast of California for nearly a week before arrangements were made for it to dock at the Port of Oakland. Passengers disembarked the next day, after a hazmat-suited CDC worker visited each room on the ship. Hundreds of crew members quarantined on board as the ship remained anchored in Oakland, before returning to San Francisco’s cruise terminal and eventually leaving the Bay nearly a month later.
The plaintiffs, along with approximately 2,000 other Californians on the ship, were either taken to quarantine at Travis Air Force Base, if they weren’t showing symptoms, or Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds for treatment, if they were.
The court filing sought to open the lawsuit to class action, open to anybody who was on the cruise. The plaintiffs are hoping for more than $5 million in financial damages, but also to hold the company responsible for implementing new safety measures on its ships.
Fairline, which owns and operates the Grand Princess, and Carnival, the parent company of Princess Cruises and Fairline, were also named as defendants.
“Carnival and Princess Cruise Lines negligently put thousands of passengers at risk of serious harm, which risk will continue for some time,” attorney Mary Alexander, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “Well over a thousand potentially infected individuals were allowed to share confined space with another nearly 2,000 uninfected passengers, casually and callously exposing all to COVID-19.”
