Adelaide woman Leanne Oaten sues Carnival Australia over cruise ship fall

An Adelaide woman who slipped and fell aboard a cruise ship is suing for damages – but the cruise operator claims she was intoxicated, court documents reveal.

An Adelaide woman is suing a cruise ship operator claiming she slipped on a tiled bar floor near a pool – but the cruise company says she fell from a stool while intoxicated before her feet touched the floor.

Leanne Joy Oaten has lodged legal action seeking damages in the District Court against Carnival Australia after she fell aboard the Carnival Spirit on January 30, 2017.

In her claim, Ms Oaten says she was sitting on a stool near the Red Frog Rum Bar on deck 9 when she “slipped and fell on the tiled surface of the bar while getting off a stool”.

She claims the mosaic tiled floor at the bar area – which was just a couple of metres from a pool area – “did not have slip resistance that is suitable for wet areas”.

She also claims the cruise company had failed to recognise and warn its passengers of the “low slip resistance of the mosaic tiled surface of the bar area and the danger posed to passengers walking on the surface as a result of its low slip resistance in wet conditions”.

Ms Oaten says the operator had failed to eliminate the risk and allowed the area to “remain in a dangerous state”.

The Carnival Spirit cruise ship. Picture: File

She claims she suffered “injury, loss and damage” including a broken wrist, complex regional pain syndrome, injuries to her right wrist, arm, hand, shoulder, leg and foot.

She says she sought treatment in the ship’s medical centre, was admitted to hospital and underwent further treatment with specialists and other services including physiotherapy.

Ms Oaten’s claim further suggests she was due to start a new job at the time of her fall but was limited in her capacity to do so.

In its statement of defence filed with the court, Carnival Australia denies Ms Oaten’s claims that she slipped on the bar’s tiled floor.

Instead, the operator suggests she “fell from the stool before her feet came into contact with the floor” and that she had “been drinking alcohol over a period of approximately five hours immediately prior to her fall”.

Carnival Australia claim she was intoxicated at the time to the “extent that her capacity to exercise reasonable care and skill was impaired” and that it was “unlikely” she would have been injured if she had she not been intoxicated.

“The proximity of the bar area to the pool and the slip resistance of the mosaic tiled surface of the bar area are matters that are not causally relevant in this case because the applicant fell from the bar stool as a result of losing balance due to her state of intoxication and not because of the condition of the floor,” Carnival Australia’s defence statement says.

The operator says she is not entitled to any award of damages.

The case returns to court in October.