Assault at Sea

ATLANTA – The 11th Circuit revived a woman’s negligence complaint against Royal Caribbean Cruises, in which she alleges that the cruise line’s employees failed to prevent adult men from buying her alcohol when she was a minor and leading her to a private cabin where they gang raped her.

The circuit court found the district court improperly dismissed the woman’s complaint, because she has sufficiently alleged that she suffered actual harm from the cruise line’s failure to protect her, despite the fact that the danger of sexual assault on minors was foreseeable.