A jury has awarded a woman who was allegedly served more than a dozen tequila shots on a Carnival Cruise ship with even more in damages than she asked for in a lawsuit. Now, Carnival Corporation is expected to pay her $300,000.
“Waking up after blacking out and going to the crew and asking them for help and asking them to tell me what happened was extremely frustrating. They gave me conflicting information, they treated me like a criminal,” said 45-year-old nurse Diana Sanders from California of the experience in a video posted to TikTok by her attorney, Spencer Aronfield. “I was very concerned that they wouldn’t tell me exactly what happened to me.”
According to court documents obtained by People magazine, Sanders was served 14 shots between 2:58 p.m. and 11:37 p.m. at six different bars (Blue Iquana Tequila, the Serenity Bar, the Red Frog Rum Bar, the Radiance Casino Bar, the Winners Luck Bar, and the “Bar @ Sportsquare) aboard the Radiance cruise ship on Jan. 5, 2024. She was served multiple shots within one single hour, the outlet said.
Sanders was “swaying, stammering, slurring her speech, had alcohol on her breath, and was acting belligerent while she was in plain view of the crewmembers serving her these alcoholic beverages,” according to her complaint. Aronfeld argued that the Radiance’s crew was “negligent” for continuing to serve her though she was reportedly visibly intoxicated.
Between 11:45 p.m. Jan. 5 and 12:20 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2024, came the blackout incident Sanders referenced. People’s report said she suffered a fall while trying to walk down a set of stairs. According to Aronfield, she was eventually discovered unconscious at the bottom of a staircase of a crew-only area, and sustained multiple injuries, including a concussion, headaches, a possible traumatic brain injury, back injuries, tailbone injuries, bruising, pain, suffering, extreme mental anguish, per the complaint.
People’s report said Carnival argued that Sanders had failed to identify any of the bartenders or bars where she was overserved and called for the case to be dismissed.
“I felt bullied. I felt like everything they did was either to mentally torment me or financially torment me,” said Sanders of the case. She said the company tried to defame her character and refused to be transparent when she asked for information about the incident.
Sanders ultimately requested a jury trial and $250,000 in damages. A jury Miami, Fla., jury that included eight women awarded her $50,000 more for emotional pain, suffering and mental anguish. People noted that the cruise line was found 60% liable, while Sanders was found 40% negligent.
“Cruise lines have a responsibility to serve alcohol responsibly and not to repeatedly serve visibly intoxicated passengers, and how this verdict represents justice prevailing,” said Aronfield in his TikTok post.
Meanwhile, Carnival said in a statement to People that it disagrees with the verdict, and “believes there are grounds for a new trial and appeal, which it will pursue.”
