Court Rejects Cruise Ship Blast Claims

MIAMI - A federal appeals court has upheld a decision forcing the families of more than two dozen Filipino sailors killed and injured in a cruise ship boiler explosion to pursue their financial claims in the Philippines.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed Tuesday with a Miami judge that contracts the sailors signed require that any injury claims be submitted to arbitration in the Philippines.

Calls for comment Wednesday to attorneys handling the case were not immediately returned.

Eight sailors died and 18 were injured after a boiler exploded while the 1,035-foot Norway was docked in Miami in May 2003. The investigation into the cause of the blast is still under way.

Ten Filipino crew members and their survivors sued to pursue their claims in U.S. courts. The decision to send their claims overseas means the difference between potentially millions of dollars in awards from American courts and $50,000 for each dead sailor in the Philippines.

Launched as the France in 1960, the 2,000-passenger Norwegian Cruise Lines ship was towed to Germany after the blast and has retired from the company's fleet.

Filipino sailors sign a one-page contract to work for cruise lines and initial other pages explaining their legal rights. Attorneys representing the sailors and families argued that the page printed in English, normally not the sailors' native language, doesn't mention arbitration and is never explained to them.

Norwegian contended the content of the agreements are universally known among those who sign them.

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Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:
So basically those poor people are screwed. That shows the advantage of having a cruise line register their ships in nations that have no or limited laws that protects workers rights. Very sad indeed.

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Sad.... an absolute disgrace in today's so-called modern world! What Price 'Modern Cruising?

"We" all accept by buying the ticket, the bargain is struck: the question is what 'bargain' and at who's true expense; surely all PAX can excercise real pressure on Cruise Lines by asking " Does your g'tees extend to fair terms to the crew as well as us, and if not, why not - we can choose your competitors who DO value all the souls in their charge, and YES we can spare the extra buck! Employment is one thing but SLAVERY another????

Generally speaking most of the crew are long range cruise ship career workers and all know what are them rights , specialy in the Filipines where they have manning agents witch intermetiate the contracts betwen them and cruise lines .

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US trial denied in cruise compensation case
Appeals court tells families and victims to settle claims in Philippines
By DONALD URQUHART
January 25, 2005

(SINGAPORE) Malaysian cruise company Star Cruises has ducked a potential US$10 billion payout to victims of a fatal boiler explosion aboard the SS Norway in 2003 after a US court denied the victims and their families a US trial.

That decision is expected to dramatically shrink the compensation payable to the injured survivors and the families of the dead crew from billions to tens of thousands of dollars.

Eight crew members died and another 18 were injured in the explosion which occurred shortly after the 41-year old ship - belonging to Star Cruises subsidiary Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) - docked at the Miami-Dade port.

In this most recent decision, a federal appeals court upheld an earlier Miami federal court ruling that the families of the Filipino cruise ship workers killed and those injured during the May 2003 explosion must resolve their claims in the Philippines.

The families of the six deceased and four injured crewmembers must now file their complaints with an arbitration board in the Philippines where death claims are capped at US$50,000 per person.

Last year, at least half of the Filipino plaintiffs settled for US$250,000 each with NCL, according to a report in the Miami Herald.

In an arrangement unique to the Philippines, the Department of Labour, through its Philippine Overseas Employment Administration branch, negotiates seamen's employment contracts with cruise and other shipping lines.

Included in all these contracts is a clause requiring their injury and death claims to be decided by arbitrators in the Philippines. US maritime lawyers have long contested this issue saying that the workers are still protected by US federal maritime law because the cruise lines operate in major US ports.

Federal courts in California, New York and Louisiana have previously allowed seamen's cases to be transferred to the Philippines, while South Florida courts have previously rejected this, saying cruise lines garner much of their profits from Miami-based operations and, therefore, are subject to US federal laws.

Similarly, lawyers acting on behalf of the Norway plaintiffs argued that because the accident occurred in the US and because the cruise line is based out of Miami, the claims should also be heard there.

Specifically, it was argued that when the US acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in 1970, it made an exception for commercial disputes covered by US national law.

The appeals court decision now paves the way for a potential US Supreme Court challenge to test whether the Convention applies to foreign seafarer contracts in the US.

This could have wide-ranging implications, not only for Filipino and seafarers of dozens of other countries, but for the shipping community as a whole because of its reliance on cheaper labour from developing countries around the globe.

Shipping News

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Originally posted by Globaliser:
Well, I'm going to stick my neck out a bit here.

While it would be a tragedy if the Filipino courts gave inadequate compensation, which would ironically be going from one extreme to the other, this decision does at least mean that these cases will not be subject to the travesty of a system that willy-nilly hands out lottery jackpot sized "compensation" awards that bear no relationship whatsoever to the loss sustained by the claimants.

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Originally posted by Norfolk Boy:
Whilst I agree with the sentiment of a fair wage for all, this is not simply a case of big, bad cruise lines exploiting people.
Anyone who has hunted around for that "amazing cruise bargain" shares responsibility. Consumer pressure keeps the prices down because we all want to be able to cruise for next to nothing.
Let's just hope the Filipino courts do the right thing.

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You are right, of course, but I would like to nuance a bit.

Making the Philippino Courts competent in contracts to hear the case is not only a matter of smaller or larger amounts of compensation to be paid. I don't know american law, but I can't really believe everytime an employee dies because of a work accident, the employer has to pay millions of dollars. Besides, there are also insurances for this.

The big problem here with the Philippino courts competent that there is much more room for NCL to escape payment, even if condemned.

Very probably the Philippino Court will decide in favour of the families of the victims.

However, before there is a judgment, NCL or the crewing company has to be brought before a court there, which is not easy.

Even more difficult, it seems to me, is getting a Philippino end judgement executed and enforced in the USA. NCL won't have many assets in the Phillipines, and US Courts are perhaps hesitant in making a judgment of a third world country court enforceable in the USA. Does anyone know if there is a special kind of "legal help" treaty between the USA and the Philippines ?

It will take many years before NCL will pay something, if anything, this way.

This is the problem, with this decision.

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Originally posted by The Merchant:
Sorry Folks, whatever way you want to dress this appaling state of affairs up - face reality - "Slavery" Is NOT Dead, or can U argue otherwise?

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Philippines protests ill-treatment of seamen
February 1, 2005

(MANILA) The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday protested to American authorities for ill-treating 13 Filipino crewmen working in a US ship when they were taken to a court to testify against the captain in a criminal case.

DFA spokesman Gilbert Asuque said that the crewmen from the ship MV Katerina were handcuffed and shackled with leg irons after being subpoenaed by the United States Attorney's Office of California, as material witnesses in the case, involving illegal discharge of pollutants into the sea.

'These are not defence witnesses. These are government witnesses. They invited these people and they still cuffed them. They should show them some courtesy,' he said in a radio interview.

Mr Asuque said that the Filipinos were shackled when they were transported on Nov 23 last year from the Holiday Inn in San Pedro, California, to the US District Court in Los Angeles.

'The Attorney-General's office said this is standard procedure during criminal cases. But we are protesting this,' he said, adding that the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC has sent a note to the US Department of State on the alleged ill-treatment.

According to the DFA, the 13 Filipinos earlier agreed to testify against officers of the MV Katerina after they were ordered to dump oil waste and garbage at the Port of Long Beach last year.

The vessel was later charged with illegal discharge of oil-contaminated wastes into the ocean and falsification of pollution prevention records, DFA said.

Xinhua

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Nothing to do with the SS Norway incident, but it seems Filipinos are getting the rough treatment in the US.

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Cheers

[ 02-01-2005: Message edited by: bulbousbow ]

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Originally posted by bulbousbow:
Nothing to do with the SS Norway incident, but it seems Filipinos are getting the rough treatment in the US.

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[ 02-01-2005: Message edited by: Globaliser ]