Damages for 16 cruise passengers whose trip was ruined by gastric illness

CRUISE SHIP passengers whose holidays were “ruined” by gastric illness are set to get damages after a ruling by leading judges.

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines failed to overturn a decision made in January last year by a county court judge in Birmingham in favour of 16 passengers, including a couple from Shipley, West Yorkshire, who declined to be named.

The judge held that they had succeeded in their claims for damages against the cruise operator in respect of norovirus on a number of cruises in 2011.

Yesterday, three judges at the Court of Appeal in London dismissed an appeal by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines (FOCL) against the county court judge’s ruling.

The judge in Birmingham had accepted that the cruise operator’s “Norovirus Outbreak and Control Plan” was an appropriate plan, consistent with industry standards, but concluded that it had not been adequately implemented.

In its appeal, FOCL argued that the judge was wrong to find in favour of the claimants “as a matter of law and on a proper interpretation of the facts”.

The cruise operator contended that the judge’s conclusion was “contrary to the weight of the evidence as a whole”, that he set the standard for breach of duty too high, that he failed to give sufficient weight to the biological nature of norovirus, and he “erred in finding that the failure to implement the plan adequately had caused the claimants to suffer illness”.

But all grounds of appeal were rejected by the court.

Lawyers for the 16 passengers said in a statement after the ruling that the majority of them had suffered gastric illness symptoms, including diarrhoea, vomiting and severe stomach cramps.

Simon O’Loughlin, of law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: “This Court of Appeal victory will finally give the passengers who suffered illness during and after cruises on the Boudicca cruise ship in 2011 a sense of justice.”