passenger sues HAL in small claims court and wins

[Copper10-8]

You know, i work in the legal field, in Seattle, however not in small claims cases and if iam not mistaken, this guys case # 85-03809 stipulates this case was opened in the year 1985, the first two #'s are the year the case was opened. Besides this guy has never posted anything prior to this and and not since. Just an observance, thanks, John

My case was filed as:

 

 

 

IN THE DISTRICT COURT IN AND FORKINGCOUNTY

 

STATE OF WASHINGTON

 

SMALL CLAIMS / SEATTLE DIVISION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CIVIL ACTION: CASE NUMBER: ____85-03809_______

 

Great obs, Big John! We work the same way down here when it comes to case numbers with the calendar year first and then the individual incident #. Just wondering wazzup with this one?:rolleyes:

[Cruiser809e8r09]

There is a case filed against HAL in King County #55-011750, with a filing date of 12-23-05. No details, you would have to ask for that from the Court of Record. I couldn't bring up a case with the number presented, but I'm only using public search portals. So this doesn't match up with the original story or number, but it also debunks the idea that case numbers are prefixed by year number.

 

Luckyguy, can you take a minute and enlighten all us us here why your civil action vs HAL and their stinky ship has a 23-year old (1985) case number when this incident occurred in DEC 07?

 

Careful about making assumptions, you know what they say...

[Copper10-8]

Thanks! Hope Lubo Visnovsky works out for you guys!

[WeLoveCruising]

Great obs, Big John! We work the same way down here when it comes to case numbers with the calendar year first and then the individual incident #. Just wondering wazzup with this one?:rolleyes:

 

Someone else will know for sure, but I dont believe there was a ship named Prinsendam sailing in 1985. The current Prinsendam came to HAL, I believe around 2002. There one before that sank in the early 80's.

 

Not sure what's up either...

[WeLoveCruising]

However...a little internet research brought up this thread about problems after the 12/2007 dry dock:

 

http://www.*****************/prinsendam/12387-prinsendam-big-troubles-ship-after-drydock.html

[WeLoveCruising]

Hmmm, I got ** out. I'll try to copy and paste the posting I read here:

 

The ship was in dry dock for 21 days and they didn’t get everything done. I would say they got nothing done. The ship was late getting to Fort Lauderdale, they did not contact us to tell us it was over 12 hours late and then shoved us into the Westin near I 95. We could have delayed coming as we live in Southern FL but they assured it would just be an hour or so (we were there hours with bad, dried up, cold pasta as our “luncheon”). Lies, lies lies. We did not leave port until the next day! We got on the ship at 7 pm and there were staterooms and public areas devoid of furniture. The hallways on deck 5 and 6 were flooded for the first three days and several passengers have respiratory aliments. They still smell like indoor pools that have never been cleaned. The cabins on those decks are contaminated too. If you have to get out of the elevators on those decks, it hits you every time. They are painting pieces of the ship in the hallways (not the hallways themselves) and noxious fumes are everywhere. The ship did not pass its coast guard inspection and if it doesn’t pass it on January 3 the ship isn’t going anywhere.

 

Every day large areas of the ship have no working plumbing. The plumbers just drilled into the wall on the second day and flooded another deck. The lido swimming pool is still not filled but they finally filled the aft one, which you have to navigate past the gym equipment to get to. Since we left so late, they change the itinerary so that the first three days were at sea, with no pool at all. The air conditioning isn’t working right in the dining room and it is over 28C/ 80 F at dinner. And people are complaining about the food and the service. The same can be said about several staterooms. They are too hot or too cold. There is dust everywhere on the ship and in the cabins. When we put our clothes in the closet, they got covered with dust because the shelves and hanging bars were not washed down. There are queues of people at the front office howling for justice and relief, and the response is, “the cruise isn’t over yet, it will get better.” I thought how could it get any worse, but it has.

 

After all the time in dry dock you would think the ship was sanitized. But there are people coming down with Norwalk Virus. And tons of respiratory ailments. The ship has not offered a single dollar worth of credit. They have not offered to clean clothes for people who have placed them in dusty/dirty closets or sat on dirty outside chairs, nor have they offered to provide free of charge the medical care for those sickened by the moldy carpets and staterooms.

[Copper10-8]

Someone else will know for sure, but I dont believe there was a ship named Prinsendam sailing in 1985. The current Prinsendam came to HAL, I believe around 2002. There one before that sank in the early 80's.

 

Not sure what's up either...

 

You're right, Prinsendam I sunk in 1980 - Prinsendam II joined the fleet in 2002.

But...........according to the homework done by dscruising, King County's case numbers, i.e. 85- do not correspond to the calendar year that particular case was filed/dispo'd in

[jtl513]

However...a little internet research brought up this thread about problems after the 12/2007 dry dock:

 

http://www.*****************/prinsendam/12387-prinsendam-big-troubles-ship-after-drydock.html

 

Hmmm, I got ** out. I'll try to copy and paste the posting I read here:

 

The ship was in dry dock for 21 days ... and staterooms.

I know in this case you've cut-and-pasted the entire text body, but for the next time you get something bleeped out, just stick in an apostrophe someplace and say "remove apostrophe" :cool:

 

http://www.cruising'talk.com/prinsendam/12387-prinsendam-big-troubles-ship-after-drydock.html

[WeLoveCruising]

I know in this case you've cut-and-pasted the entire text body, but for the next time you get something bleeped out, just stick in an apostrophe someplace and say "remove apostrophe" :cool:

 

http://www.cruising'talk.com/prinsendam/12387-prinsendam-big-troubles-ship-after-drydock.html

 

Thanks for the tip!

[Toad]

Just did a search and the OP has NEVER Ever posted again. This always makes me wonder abour the true intentions of the individual in posting.

[twinkletoes4445]

At the end of this "rodeo", it is not HAL that is paying the $4,000 - it's the passengers who pay to sail on HAL ships.

 

It's not the passengers fault things went wrong. It's the responsibility of the cruise line to take adequate measures to see that their product is in top working condition. HAL needs to fix these problems. The other passengers do absorb these costs, but this is HAL's fault, not the passengers who experienced the problems.

 

We own a business. If we have problems we fix them. We don't blame our customers if they are unhappy because of something that wasn't done right.

[bepsf]

You know, i work in the legal field, in Seattle, however not in small claims cases and if iam not mistaken, this guys case # 85-03809 stipulates this case was opened in the year 1985, the first two #'s are the year the case was opened. Besides this guy has never posted anything prior to this and and not since. Just an observance, thanks, John

My case was filed as:

 

 

 

IN THE DISTRICT COURT IN AND FORKINGCOUNTY

 

STATE OF WASHINGTON

 

SMALL CLAIMS / SEATTLE DIVISION

 

 

 

 

 

 

CIVIL ACTION: CASE NUMBER: ____85-03809_______

 

Perhaps Small Claims has a different numbering system?

...It could be that the 85 references Year 8, Month 5.

 

I hope that the OP truly did get some compensation/satisfaction - I would have been livid if I had to deal with such a mess upon boarding any ship.

[Jade13]

Hmmm, I got ** out. I'll try to copy and paste the posting I read here:

 

The ship was in dry dock for 21 days and they didn’t get everything done. I would say they got nothing done. The ship was late getting to Fort Lauderdale, they did not contact us to tell us it was over 12 hours late and then shoved us into the Westin near I 95. We could have delayed coming as we live in Southern FL but they assured it would just be an hour or so (we were there hours with bad, dried up, cold pasta as our “luncheon”). Lies, lies lies. We did not leave port until the next day! We got on the ship at 7 pm and there were staterooms and public areas devoid of furniture. The hallways on deck 5 and 6 were flooded for the first three days and several passengers have respiratory aliments. They still smell like indoor pools that have never been cleaned. The cabins on those decks are contaminated too. If you have to get out of the elevators on those decks, it hits you every time. They are painting pieces of the ship in the hallways (not the hallways themselves) and noxious fumes are everywhere. The ship did not pass its coast guard inspection and if it doesn’t pass it on January 3 the ship isn’t going anywhere.

 

Every day large areas of the ship have no working plumbing. The plumbers just drilled into the wall on the second day and flooded another deck. The lido swimming pool is still not filled but they finally filled the aft one, which you have to navigate past the gym equipment to get to. Since we left so late, they change the itinerary so that the first three days were at sea, with no pool at all. The air conditioning isn’t working right in the dining room and it is over 28C/ 80 F at dinner. And people are complaining about the food and the service. The same can be said about several staterooms. They are too hot or too cold. There is dust everywhere on the ship and in the cabins. When we put our clothes in the closet, they got covered with dust because the shelves and hanging bars were not washed down. There are queues of people at the front office howling for justice and relief, and the response is, “the cruise isn’t over yet, it will get better.” I thought how could it get any worse, but it has.

 

After all the time in dry dock you would think the ship was sanitized. But there are people coming down with Norwalk Virus. And tons of respiratory ailments. The ship has not offered a single dollar worth of credit. They have not offered to clean clothes for people who have placed them in dusty/dirty closets or sat on dirty outside chairs, nor have they offered to provide free of charge the medical care for those sickened by the moldy carpets and staterooms.

 

Assuming this is am accurate description (and can be confirmed with photos, back-upped up by another passenger etc.), I think the OP should get some refund, not just credits towards another cruise (which they may never want to take).

 

Also, what year? Jan 3 could have been the beginning of a World Cruise, which would explain why HAL did not cancel etc.

[Richard in Panama]

This is just an interesting story . . . but relevant to the post . . . We owned cruise only travel agencies in Ventura County for 15 years and sent a lot of happy clients on fantastic trips. One guy booked an inaugural cruise on another, not HAL, cruise line. It was a trans-Atlantic from the shipyard in Italy. I warned him about problems he might encounter . . . . and he did, and was not a happy camper. The ship was filty, the food wasn't edible, it wasn't safe, his wife was a nervous wreck, they couldn't sleep, yada yada yada. He decribed it as "the cruise from hell" and all he wanted in return, was a free cruise on the "cruise line from hell". Go figure!

 

Anyhow he sued me and the cruise line . . . in Ventura County small claims court. (First and last time in 15 years anyone sued us.) The cruise line, one with whom we seldom did business, could have cared less. So I was left holding the bag. One day I got a call from the producers of the then Judge Wapner or whatever show. Turns out they scrounge around Ventura small claims looking for cases for the show. If we would go on the show we'd all get paid for our appearances and however the case was decided, the show would pay. They wanted to call it "The Cruise From Hell." Anyhow I called the cruise line to tell them about this great "opportunity" and they immediately forked out a free cruise to the guy, which he happily went on after having trashed the ship and cruise line . . .

 

And I'm not a lawyer, nor do I sleep . . . or swim . . . with one.

 

Regards, Richard

[RuthC]

This is just an interesting story . . . but relevant to the post . . .

That's more than "interesting", that's :D

[Maasdam]

That was the first cruise after the refit.

 

My friend who work on board Prinsendam and told me.

 

All gone terrible wrong. HAL was indeed not correct. The refit was rushed and when the ship leaves the yard it was not ready. They where a day to late due to bad weather I believe..... The captain decided to delayed departure so the crew was able to get the ship ready. That Christmas/new year cruise everything that could go wrong go wrong. It was softly said chaotic. Food was not up to standards problems with plumbing etc. etc. In that the passenger was right.

 

HAL did compensate passengers with refunds free on board accounts etc. the usual stuff.