Norwegian Cruise Line obtained a positive verdict not too long ago in a lawsuit towards the corporate that offered the Azipod propulsion methods in use onboard lots of the firm’s cruise ships.
After a jury trial that took 4 weeks, the judgment got here again in favor of the cruise line, awarding the corporate $159 million.
In line with the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court docket of Florida, ABB Inc and ABB OY, American and Finnish corporations, respectively, made fraudulent and negligent misrepresentations and omissions about their propulsion methods. The award is the most important in Florida in 2022.
Norwegian Cruise Line Sues Azipod Propulsion Supplier
Onboard many Norwegian Cruise Line ships, the propulsion for the vessels is offered by Azipod methods. These marine propulsion models include a fixed-pitch propeller mounted on a steerable gondola. As electrical energy is produced inside the primary engine room, these Azipod methods use that electrical energy to energy the propellers.
Norwegian Cruise Line claimed within the lawsuit that ABB purposefully misrepresented the reliability and security of its Azipods, main NCL to endure Azipod failures.
These failures precipitated NCL to lose propulsion and steering throughout voyages, endangering the security of passengers and crew and inflicting important hurt to NCL’s status and enterprise.
After a four-week jury trial within the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court docket of Florida, Norwegian Cruise Line offered adequate proof, resulting in the jury deciding within the cruise line’s favor.
Norwegian Cruise Line’s legal professionals Holland & Knight, stated the next via accomplice Alex M. Gonzalez:
“It is a case about fraud and negligent misrepresentation and omissions that ruined the cruises of tens of hundreds of passengers and broken NCL’s enterprise,”
“The defendants knew that that they had an issue with a essential element that impacted the security of numerous passengers and crew, and so they hid and lied about it. This verdict sends an essential message that you would be able to’t conceal or misrepresent essential data from clients like NCL and different cruise traces. NCL feels totally vindicated by this verdict.”
A number of Ships Impacted
Over the past couple of years, a number of Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ships have been impacted by propulsion issues. One instance comes from Norwegian Jade; on November 18, 2018, the exciter failed on Norwegian Jade’s starboard Azipod, forcing it to cancel a 10-day cruise and costing the corporate at the very least $10.8m, based on the lawsuit.
“They have been fortunate that although they have been in dangerous elements of the ocean, it occurred to be a day that had unbelievable, calm climate,” Gonzalez stated. “However luck isn’t a technique when you have got hundreds of individuals aboard a ship for which you’re accountable.”
In complete, the issues with the Azipod methods impacted 4 of Norwegian Cruise Line’s vessels throughout a three-year span.
Within the meantime, ABB had claimed that points akin to that occurred to Norwegian Cruise Line’s ships occurred solely as soon as each 1500 years.
The ultimate compensation bundle for Norwegian Cruise Line consists of $31.75 million in compensatory damages and a further $31.75 million in punitive damages towards the Finnish firm OBB OY. An extra $95.25 million in punitive damages was awarded to Norwegian Cruise Line towards ABB Inc.
