Nearly 180,000 US deaths projected by October 1
Two passengers of the MS Zaandam cruise ship filed suit against Holland America and its parent company, Carnival Corporation, Wednesday.
Leonard Lindsay and Carl Zehner, who are married, accuse the company of mishandling the Covid-19 outbreak onboard. They say it led to Zehner contracting the disease and being on a ventilator for three weeks.
“This cruise was a life-threatening nightmare,” plaintiffs’ attorney Kenny Byrd says in a news release.
The attorneys are asking a federal judge to give the case class action status covering all of the passengers aboard the MS Zaandam. They claim Holland America did not follow through with promises to ensure the health of its passengers, who were allegedly not given a temperature screening at boarding.
“Additionally, Defendants did not implement social distancing among the passengers, or implement other reasonable precautions at this stage of the cruise,” the lawsuit states.
According to the suit, the ship was denied entry to a port in Argentina in March, but it was nearly a week before the crew began telling passengers to isolate in their staterooms. The plaintiffs claim the company was already aware that some of its crew members had become ill with coronavirus symptoms. It was not until April 3 that most passengers were allowed to disembark in Port Everglades, Florida.
CNN has reached out to Holland America for a response to the lawsuit.
