A woman who consumed 14 tequila shots during a Carnival cruise has been awarded $300,000 in a lawsuit against the company, following injuries she incurred from a fall while intoxicated.
Diana Sanders, a 45-year-old nurse residing in Vacaville, California, was aboard the Carnival Radiance on January 5, 2024, when she was served the substantial amount of alcohol over approximately eight and a half hours, from 2:58 p.m. to 11:37 p.m., as detailed in the lawsuit.
According to the Miami Herald, Sanders lost consciousness and suffered a fall between 11:45 p.m. and 12:20 a.m.
The lawsuit claimed she endured serious injuries, including a concussion, severe headaches, a potential traumatic brain injury, and injuries to her back and tailbone, among other ailments.
Sanders’ legal team contended that the ship’s bartenders should have ceased serving her alcohol once her intoxication level became apparent. Onboard staff are generally lenient with serving alcohol, provided passengers are of legal drinking age.
Carnival and other cruise lines often offer alcohol packages that allow guests to pay a flat fee upfront, avoiding individual charges per drink. This system can encourage excessive drinking, as guests aren’t required to use cash or credit cards for each beverage.
Notably, Carnival has a 15 alcoholic drink limit per 24 hours, one more than what Sanders claimed she consumed.
Sanders sued Carnival in Florida, where the company is based. A Miami federal jury awarded her the six-figure payout after agreeing that the cruise line should have exercised reasonable care for the safety of their passengers.
Diana Sanders (pictured with her lawyer, Spencer Aronfeld) admitted to taking at least 14 shots of tequila aboard the Carnival Radiance ship on January 5, 2024. She said she blacked out, then fell, suffering serious injuries
Sanders sued the Florida-based company and a Miami federal jury awarded her $300,000, agreeing that the cruise line should have known not to overserve her
The six jurors also said Carnival has ‘the responsibility … to supervise and/or assist passengers aboard the vessel who Carnival knew, or should have known, were engaging, or were likely to engage in behavior potentially dangerous to themselves or others abroad (sic) the vessel,’ according to court documents.
The jury said 60 percent of the fault lay with Carnival, while 40 percent of the fault was with Sanders.
‘I felt like the whole time, [the jury] saw right through what the defense was trying to do, how they tried to defame my character, things they brought up that had nothing to do with the case. They were just trying to criminalize, bully me and make me look like a bad human being,’ Sanders said in a social media video where she appeared with her lawyer, Spencer Aronfeld.
Aronfeld, the founder of Aronfeld Trial Lawyers in Coral Gables, told the Miami Herald it’s hard to bring these sorts of cases to trial.
‘I’ve had many overservice cases that have settled but none that went the full distance,’ he said.
A spokesperson for Carnival said the company ‘respectfully disagrees with the verdict and believes there are grounds for a new trial and appeal, which it will pursue.’
Part of Carnival’s defense was that Sanders did not ‘identify any crew member who over-served her or which bar she consumed alcohol at for Carnival to have the ability to identify its bartenders,’ according to court records.
‘Therefore, the over-service of alcohol count should be dismissed for failure to sufficiently identify a negligent employee,’ the Carnival lawyers continued. ‘There are no allegations regarding Plaintiff stumbling, sleeping at a bar, slurring her words, or exhibiting any other intoxicated-like behaviors.’
