A woman has hired a Jones Act attorney to help her obtain compensation after her husband died due to an accident on a cruise ship where he worked.

The Jones Act, also known as the Merchant Marine Act, extends the Federal Employers Liability Act to provide assistance to seamen who are injured or killed while working on a ship.

Plaintiff Geraldine B. worked as a restaurant hostess aboard the Norwegian Cruise Lines ship that employed her husband Ben as a seaman. They both were working aboard the Norwegian Breakaway when the accident occurred on July 20, 2016.

According to Geraldine, Ben was assigned to conduct and assist in an unusually high number of rescue drills that day, including Code Alpha (medical emergency), Code Bravo (fire onboard), Code Delta (ship damage) and Code Oscar (man overboard).

“This is more than the usual number of drills and for a longer period of time, making it exhaustive on not only the participants, but also on the equipment used,” says her Jones Act attorney in the filing.

Ben allegedly entered a rescue boat on Deck 7 of the Norwegian Breakaway during one of the drills. The tethering on the rescue boat broke, Geraldine says, causing Ben to fall almost six stories into the ocean water below.

The rescue boat was allegedly left hanging by a wire cord above Ben. This wire cord is used to pull the rescue boat up and down from the ship to the water.

According to Geraldine’s lawsuit, Ben was floating in the water for a disturbing amount of time when the wire cord on the rescue boat broke, causing the heavy rescue boat to fall onto Ben.

The Jones Act attorney says that because Geraldine was aboard this same vessel, she “personally witnessed and experienced the tragic incident which led to the injury and eventual death of her husband.”

At the time Ben fell overboard, the ship’s crew had been rehearsing several rescue operations during drills. As a result, Geraldine says, most crew members allegedly thought the Code Oscar (man overboard) was another drill.

“Even after Ben emerged from the rescue boat crashing on top of him, the management of the vessel failed to alert real and actual emergency personnel,” alleges the Jones Act attorney.

Ben suffered severe injuries including loss of significant amount of blood, acute respiratory failure, fractures of his pelvis and other damages. He died of his injuries on Aug. 27, 2016.

Jones Act Attorney Alleges Negligence

Geraldine argues that Norwegian Cruise Lines allegedly failed to maintain the ship in a reasonably safe condition, which led to the failure of both the tethering that caused Ben’s fall and of the davit wire cord that broke and allowed the rescue boat to fall upon him.

Complicating matters, Norwegian allegedly failed to convey in a timely manner to the crew that an actual emergency had occurred when Ben fell overboard, which led him to suffer unattended injuries for a longer period of time in the water.

The Jones Act Lawsuit is Case No. 1:18-cv-22922-KMM in the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County Florida, Circuit Civil Division.