Florida Court Awards $9.5 Million Award in Cruise Ship Slip and Fall Lawsuit

Miami, FLCruise ships may consider swabbing the deck more carefully in the future after a Miami-Dade Circuit Court awarded $9.5 million to a British man who filed a slip and fall lawsuit against the travel agency he worked for.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">In 2006, Danny Simpson was working as a fitness instructor for the Miami-based travel company Steiner Transocean when he slipped and fell on a wet floor at the ship's spa facility, sustaining a back injury that left him incontinent and impotent.

A woman running on a nearby treadmill had recently vomited on the floor, and maintenance staff mopped the area without adequately drying it, setting the stage for Simpson's accident.

"The [cruise staff] cleaner had failed to dry an area on the gym floor, and the cleaner did not warn Danny Simpson of that fact," Simpson's lawyer David Brill tells USA Today. "The… cleaner was hence clearly negligent in failing to complete the task of cleaning and drying the floor and not warning Mr. Simpson of the area which was still wet."

Steiner Transocean, who did not employ the cleaner in question, has filed papers for an appeal, claiming that responsibility for the accident lies with the cruise line and not itself.