11th Circuit tosses $12M verdict in cruise passenger’s sexual assault suit against Carnival

The 11th Circuit vacated a $12 million verdict against Carnival Cruise Line on Tuesday, ordering a new trial on sexual assault and false imprisonment claims brought by a passenger who says she was assaulted in a storage closet aboard the Carnival Miracle in 2018.

The panel found the trial judge wrongly instructed jurors that Carnival was already liable for false imprisonment before trial even began, and wrongly excluded an FBI report concluding the encounter was consensual. Judge Barbara Lagoa wrote that excluding the report kept jurors from weighing evidence that could have changed the outcome.

The plaintiff's negligence and emotional distress claims, on which the jury already ruled for Carnival, won't be retried. The crew member involved was fired by Carnival but was never a defendant, and prosecutors declined to charge him.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.