Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
A family filed a lawsuit against a well-known cruise line after they say crewmembers overserved their mother prior to her fatal fall in October 2024.
The incident happened while 66-year-old Dulcie White, of Westmoreland, New York, was traveling on a Taylor Swift-themed cruise with her daughter, Megan Klewin. The lawsuit alleges that on Oct. 22, 2024, while 17 miles north of Nassau, White was intoxicated and fell off her balcony.
White had allegedly purchased an “unlimited alcoholic beverages” package. Her family claims that she was served seven alcoholic drinks in just over six hours, according to reporting from The New York Post.
Klewin told reporters with CBS Miami that her mother “did overdo it, trying to maybe get her money’s worth.”
“She was completely intoxicated in a way I haven’t seen before.” She said. “It saddens me that that is my last memory of her.”
The lawsuit alleges the woman exhibited signs of intoxication in front of crew before being helped back to her room by another passenger. The mother and daughter had left their luggage on the balcony to create more space in their cabin and Klewin said she assumed her mother was going through her luggage to retrieve clothing.
“I assumed that’s what she was doing was going to check her suitcase,” Klewin said. “I wasn’t looking and the next chance that I did look up, I saw her back. She was seated on the edge of the balcony like she had climbed up. She was seated and then fell over before I could get to her.”
She vanished in the water around 9:40 p.m. and her family says the ship never turned around or launched rescue boats. Two helicopters and crews from the Royal Bahamas Defense Force and the U.S. Coast Guard searched for White but her body was never found.
Leesfield & Partners
Leesfield & Partners is a 49-year law firm with decades of experience handling cases on behalf of injured cruise ship passengers and crew. With offices in Orlando, Key West and Miami, the firm has seen every manner of injury that can occur on a cruise ship. From negligent medical care to crimes aboard ships and onboard injuries, our attorneys work diligently to secure the best outcome for every client in each case.
As common carriers, cruise lines owe a heightened duty of care to ensure the safety and well-being of their passengers. This duty encompasses maintaining hazard-free decks, promptly repairing loose railings and ensuring that excursion transportation – such as buses – are safe and properly maintained.
Previous Cases
One tragic case handled by the firm involves the death of a young girl who got separated from her family while on a cruise ship. As the child leaned over a faulty interior railing on the ship, it gave way, and she fell several stories to her death.
Leesfield & Partners attorneys worked diligently to secure a confidential settlement on behalf of the grieving family and hold the cruise line accountable.
As common carriers, cruise lines owe a heightened duty of care to ensure the safety and well-being of their passengers. This duty encompasses maintaining hazard-free decks, promptly repairing loose railings and ensuring that excursion transportation, like buses, are safe and properly maintained.
Additionally, cruise lines are obligated to provide adequate medical care while at sea and to recognize when a passenger’s condition requires emergency evacuation. Similarly, they must take reasonable measures to protect passengers from criminal acts, whether committed by fellow passengers or crew members.
And these duties do not end when passengers embark on shore excursions. Partner Justin B. Shapiro is representing a client injured in a jet ski excursion incident where a cruise ship tour guide negligently collided with her from behind, resulting in severe and painful spinal fractures.
That case is ongoing.
Leesfield & Partners previously represented a Canadian woman who was traveling on a cruise ship when she was horrifically raped. The woman was in her cabin alone when a member of the ship’s crew abused his employee status and used a keycard to access the woman’s room where he attacked her.
The firm secured a multi-million-dollar amount for the woman in that case.
The firm recovered $2.5 million for a 9-year-old who collided with an unpadded steel grommet while diving for an out-of-bounds ball as he played on a ship’s basketball court. The child in that case suffered a catastrophic brain injury as a result on the traumatic incident.
Similarly, the firm represented a man, 62, who was injured while playing pickleball aboard his cruise ship. The firm settled the case for $500,000.
Mr. Shapiro and Trial Attorney Evan Robinson secured a confidential amount for a woman who was injured after an onboard fall. In that case, the woman slipped on water that was not cleaned up by crew in a timely manner. As a result, the woman fractured her right femur and fractured one of the bones in her lumbar spine.
Bernardo Pimentel II, a Trial Attorney at the firm, is representing a woman who suffers extreme trauma and emotional turmoil after it was revealed she was one among numerous passengers, including children, whose privacy was violated when a crew member planted hidden cameras in their cabins. That crew member was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing child sex abuse material.
Mr. Pimentel is also representing another woman in a case involving an injury she suffered while coming back to her cruise. The woman was returning from a shore excursion when she tripped and fell on an uneven bridge, seriously injured her left ankle, knee, arm and elbow. She was able to walk back to the tender boat where she informed the crew she would need to see the ship’s physician.
No action was taken to ensure that medical personnel would be there to meet her when she arrived. She disembarked without assistance and, while walking up the gangway, paused to gather herself while in extreme pain. She told the crew she needed immediate medical attention. The crew, again, failed to provide a wheelchair or another means of transport to the infirmary. While still on the gangway, crew members approached our client and grabbed her arm. She fell to the floor in agony and was finally given a wheelchair and taken to the infirmary.
While there, she was diagnosed with multiple fractures to her hip and shoulder. Hours later, she was transferred to a remote hospital in Brazil and was left to wait a full week with insufficient medical care before she could be transported to a larger city and then to the U.S. for a full hip replacement.
She spent weeks recovering at a hospital in Florida before she was able to return to her home in another state.
