Eva Wong and Benjamin Wong, individually and on behalf of the late Ronald Wong, filed a lawsuit today against Carnival Corporation and Princess Cruise Lines, alleging that they negligently boarded new passengers on the Grand Princess and allowed it to sail for Hawaii on February 21, 2020, knowing that 62 passengers and many crew members on the prior Mexico Grand Princess cruise were still onboard after being exposed to the coronavirus, and after knowing a passenger who boarded the prior cruise on February 11 had symptoms but the medical crew did nothing. Worse, Defendants knew that sister ship Diamond Princess had already been quarantined in Japan since February 3rd after two passengers died from COVID-19 and hundreds of passengers tested positive.
Alison Cordova, a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, stated “Defendants welcomed thousands of happy passengers onboard the Grand Princess knowing that the cruise ship was a petri dish festering with the coronavirus, as alleged in the complaint, Defendants knowingly failed to give notice, failed to warn, and failed to disinfect the ship, in willful disregard for the safety of their passengers. The passengers and crew were captives on a cruise ship to coronavirus hell for profit."
Nanci Nishimura, a partner at the Cotchett firm, added, “Dr. Grant Tarling, the Chief Medical Officer for the entire line of Carnival’s cruise ships, as alleged in the complaint, disregarded his 27 years of medical expertise for profits, and was ‘routinely called upon by national and international health authorities to help develop prevention and control measures to stop the global spread of communicable diseases such as … novel influenza viruses.’”
