Injured cruise worker awarded $10.3M
Celebrity Cruises files lawsuit to void arbitrator’s decision
A food service worker was awarded $10.3 million for spinal injuries he says he suffered when struck by a bread trolley in the galley of Celebrity Cruises’ Eclipse.
But the cruise line has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Miami to void the award by an arbitrator who presided over the case at the International Centre for Dispute Resolution in Miami.
Celebrity Cruises is a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Both companies are headquartered in Miami.
In his injury claim, Slobodan Despot, said he was working in a pantry aboard the Eclipse in July 2015 when a sudden movement of the ship caused a bread trolley to roll, then fall over and strike him in the back.
Despot, a native of Croatia, was employed as a maitre d’ in the ship’s Murano Restaurant.
The cruise line provided “immediate shipboard medical care” and arranged for Despot to receive further care.
But Despot said his injury developed into central pain syndrome, a neurological condition involving the brain, brainstem and spinal cord.
As required in his employment agreement, Despot pursued his claim in a confidential arbitration process, and the parties agreed to follow general maritime law of the United States.
Celebrity Cruises claims that the arbitrator, who is not named in the petition, acted improperly by soliciting a charitable donation from Despot’s attorney during the 20-day arbitration sometime between June 19, 2018, and December 17, 2018.
Celebrity asked the International Centre for Dispute Resolution to remove the arbitrator from the case, but it refused, the petition states.
A key factor in the arbitrator’s June 6 decision to award $10.3 million, the cruise line charged, was his determination that Despot was put at a disadvantage by the cruise line’s failure to produce two pieces of evidence.
One was the bread trolley. The cruise line placed it back into service and it could not be identified when requested by the arbitrator.
Also, the cruise line refused to hand over its accident report and photographs, citing “work product immunity.”
Absence of those pieces of evidence, Celebrity contends, caused the arbitrator to draw an “adverse inference” against the company, shift the burden of truth from Despot and presume that Celebrity was at fault.
Despot, meanwhile, is petitioning the federal court to confirm the arbitrator’s award.
In an email, Despot’s attorney, John H. Hickey of the Hickey Law Firm in Miami, said Celebrity’s allegations are “without merit.”
“Celebrity does not like the result and wants a do over. They are grasping at straws,” Hickey said.
Asked about the cruise line’s allegations about a charitable donation to the arbitrator, Hickey declined to provide details but noted Celebrity’s bid to have him removed from the case was rejected by a three-member panel of the dispute resolution provider.
Celebrity Cruises’ attorneys did not immediately respond to an email asking whether the company is seeking to have the case reheard in arbitration or another tribunal.