resistk Posted July 24, 2020 #1 Share Posted July 24, 2020 More bad publicity from down under, not sure where the class action was filed, maybe Australia? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8555087/Lawsuit-launched-against-Ruby-Princess-cruise-ship-owners-20-coroanvirus-deaths.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aus Traveller Posted July 25, 2020 #2 Share Posted July 25, 2020 The Ruby Princess incident happened in Australia so naturally the class action was filed in Australia. Where else? 😁 The newspaper item that you quoted mentions "the federal court". This action has been mentioned in the Australian media, but I feel it has been generated by the lawyers advertising the class action to get more people to sign up. I am not a lawyer, but even I can see that the 'facts' that the lawyers are relying on to prove their claim are very dubious. Here is a quote: We say the owner and operator knew of the risks that passengers may contract coronavirus before the ship left and they failed to take steps to ensure their passengers were safe and protected,' Ms Antzoulatos said in a statement on Friday. I do not know how anyone could have known that passengers on the Ruby "may contract coronavirus". Although I suppose you could say that they could, the same as anyone in the world could contract it. The Sea Princess left on an around Australia cruise on the same day and had no cases. Several other ships left on cruises around the same time and also had no cases, so I cannot see how anyone can claim that "the owner and operator knew of the risks that passengers may contract coronavirus". If they claim that Princess knew the risk simply because the virus existed in the world, then so did the passengers. Most class action cases don't proceed to Court. They either fail at the first hurdle, or the defendant settles simply the end the bad publicity. In this case, it could be either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aus Traveller Posted July 25, 2020 #3 Share Posted July 25, 2020 There is currently a government enquiry into the Ruby Princess incident. It has been running for many weeks and is about to conclude. The Commissioner was very scathing in his handling of a witness from NSW Health. She was in tears. He also declared that some of the government witnesses were less than truthful in their responses. He has also made a couple of criticisms of Princess. If anyone is interested in reading more, there is a thread giving details of the hearing, on the Australia and NZ Cruises section of the forum. To find it, scroll down the opening page past the Roll Calls and past Special Interest Cruising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
By The Bay Posted July 25, 2020 #4 Share Posted July 25, 2020 2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said: There is currently a government enquiry into the Ruby Princess incident. It has been running for many weeks and is about to conclude. The Commissioner was very scathing in his handling of a witness from NSW Health. She was in tears. He also declared that some of the government witnesses were less than truthful in their responses. He has also made a couple of criticisms of Princess. If anyone is interested in reading more, there is a thread giving details of the hearing, on the Australia and NZ Cruises section of the forum. To find it, scroll down the opening page past the Roll Calls and past Special Interest Cruising. Here is a link to the Ruby Princess - Special Inquiry - Evidence To Date thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch1 Posted July 25, 2020 #5 Share Posted July 25, 2020 6 hours ago, Aus Traveller said: The Ruby Princess incident happened in Australia so naturally the class action was filed in Australia. Where else? 😁 The newspaper item that you quoted mentions "the federal court". This action has been mentioned in the Australian media, but I feel it has been generated by the lawyers advertising the class action to get more people to sign up. I am not a lawyer, but even I can see that the 'facts' that the lawyers are relying on to prove their claim are very dubious. Here is a quote: We say the owner and operator knew of the risks that passengers may contract coronavirus before the ship left and they failed to take steps to ensure their passengers were safe and protected,' Ms Antzoulatos said in a statement on Friday. I do not know how anyone could have known that passengers on the Ruby "may contract coronavirus". Although I suppose you could say that they could, the same as anyone in the world could contract it. The Sea Princess left on an around Australia cruise on the same day and had no cases. Several other ships left on cruises around the same time and also had no cases, so I cannot see how anyone can claim that "the owner and operator knew of the risks that passengers may contract coronavirus". If they claim that Princess knew the risk simply because the virus existed in the world, then so did the passengers. Most class action cases don't proceed to Court. They either fail at the first hurdle, or the defendant settles simply the end the bad publicity. In this case, it could be either. I think I read somewhere one argument they are claiming is the Ruby Princess had coronavirus cases on the cruise before and knew the virus was on the ship and was not deeply cleaned. In addition, staff were infected from the previous cruise and spread it to the oncoming passengers. Thus, "failed to take steps to ensure their passengers were safe.........." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aus Traveller Posted July 25, 2020 #6 Share Posted July 25, 2020 5 minutes ago, Fletch1 said: I think I read somewhere one argument they are claiming is the Ruby Princess had coronavirus cases on the cruise before and knew the virus was on the ship and was not deeply cleaned. In addition, staff were infected from the previous cruise and spread it to the oncoming passengers. Thus, "failed to take steps to ensure their passengers were safe.........." At one stage the Police Commissioner said there was "illness" on the previous voyage - true - but there has been no indication that there was COVID on board. If staff were infected on the previous voyage, then passengers om that voyage would have been also, but have been no positive cases from that previous voyage. If any of the staff were infected, it would have spread like wildfire through the crew quarters. We saw how it did that in the weeks after the passengers disembarked and the crew were not observing social distancing rules. Around two months ago there was a '60 Minutes' show on COVID where a scientist mentioned that they can analyse the virus someone has and by comparing the genome, they can detect where that strain originated. This has also been mentioned in recent days with reference to infections in NSW. That means, that the health authorities would have known for months where the Ruby Princess infection originated, and I am sure that if it originated in India or in Asia where most of the crew come from, that fact would have been shouted from the rooftops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch1 Posted July 25, 2020 #7 Share Posted July 25, 2020 2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said: At one stage the Police Commissioner said there was "illness" on the previous voyage - true - but there has been no indication that there was COVID on board. If staff were infected on the previous voyage, then passengers om that voyage would have been also, but have been no positive cases from that previous voyage. If any of the staff were infected, it would have spread like wildfire through the crew quarters. We saw how it did that in the weeks after the passengers disembarked and the crew were not observing social distancing rules. Around two months ago there was a '60 Minutes' show on COVID where a scientist mentioned that they can analyse the virus someone has and by comparing the genome, they can detect where that strain originated. This has also been mentioned in recent days with reference to infections in NSW. That means, that the health authorities would have known for months where the Ruby Princess infection originated, and I am sure that if it originated in India or in Asia where most of the crew come from, that fact would have been shouted from the rooftops. I did not know that. I hope they can use that analysis here in Victoria to determine where our outbreaks are coming from. A lot of people would be very interested to know that!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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