Coronavirus: Lawyers line up for Ruby Princess case

Lawyers are preparing to file a class-action suit against Carnival Corporation on behalf of passengers and families on the Ruby Princess.

The Ruby Princess off the coast of Wollongong on Friday. Picture: Simon Bullard

Lawyers are preparing to file a class-action suit against Carnival Corporation on behalf of passengers and their families who sailed on the company’s ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship in March.

The ship accounts for about 340 separate cases of coronavirus and at least seven deaths, the largest source of Australian fatalities from the pandemic.

Shine Lawyers said “dozens” of passengers had expressed interest in joining a class action.

“We’ve been contacted by a number of passengers and we are taking several more inquiries every day,” Shine practice leader Vicky Antzoulatos said. “There are sufficient common issues between that group for a case to be brought as a class action.”

Ms Antzoulatos said the 2700 passengers were not monitored while on board, nor were they advised of the risk to themselves and the risk that they posed to others.

“On the previous cruise ship, about 158 people had symptoms of coronavirus and as such there was a real and substantial risk to passengers boarding the next cruise,” she said. “The ship’s operators have some really serious questions to answer.”

Carnival declined to comment.

The lawsuit is in its early stages, and it must overcome other legal hurdles, but the case is expected to be the first of a wave of coronavirus class actions in Australia. Shine also confirmed it had been approached by litigation funders interested in the potential class action.

Barbara McDonald, a professor of law at the University of Sydney, said “multiple legal avenues” existed for lawyers pursuing a class ­action against Carnival Corporation on behalf of Ruby Princess passengers and their families.

“We are talking about serious physical injury or death,” she said. “There’s a choice of law — they’ll consider contract, torts, as well as consumer law.

“There is a much stronger basis to launching a class action compared to other more recent cases I’ve seen.”

The saga involving the Ruby Princess began on March 19 when the ship was granted unfettered permission to disembark nearly 2700 passengers in Sydney. They were free to take any transport they wished to their final destinations.

Eight cruise ships remain stranded off the NSW coast, including the Ruby Princess, registered in Bermuda. They are at an impasse with the federal government over whether they will be given permission to dock.

However, the nation’s leading maritime law experts have called for a pragmatic global response to dealing with cruise ships, merchant ships and naval vessels around the world.

Australian National University professor of international law ­Donald Rothwell said many Australian citizens were trapped on cruise ships overseas, and Australia would continue to accept merchant ships that could face virus outbreaks in coming months.

Australia also had naval vessels in the Middle East.

He said global co-operation was needed. For example, the US was forced to arrange for sailors on one of its aircraft carriers to be quarantined in Guam this week, after 100 people on board tested positive for the virus. “These are ­issues that are happening globally,” Professor Rothwell said.

“At the end of the day, there are 15 to 20 major cruise companies around the world.

“Governments need to be collectively discussing issues, such as where they will eventually park these cruise ships.”

Colin Biggers & Paisley partner Stuart Hetherington said Australia was a party to at least three international conventions, which included World Health Organisation regulations made in 2005, that created clear obligations to help injured or sick passengers or crew.

He said Australia needed to act reasonably, balancing the safety of its own residents with those on board the ships.

“Part of the balance also is that Australia has a huge cruising ­industry,” he said. “So many Australians travel on cruise ships, bringing huge wealth to the country, and we want to keep the industry going.”

New biosecurity regulations aimed at dealing with the pandemic require any cruise ship that enters Australian waters ­before June 15 to leave. The exceptions are for exercising the right of innocent passage, securing the safety of a ship, saving life at sea or necessary maintenance, unless given permission to stay.

Mr Hetherington said the ­exceptions recognised Australia’s international obligations.