A slip-and-fall case against Carnival Corporation was dismissed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida’s Miami Division on March 19.
Margarita Navarro sued the popular cruise line for negligence after she blamed Carnival for her knee, hip and shoulder injuries after she slipped over a photographer’s leg. It was noted that the photographer, who works for Carnival, had his leg out. This is Carnival’s second motion to dismiss after Navarro’s first complaint was dismissed. Now, her amended lawsuit, which provides more information about the employed photographer’s stance, is dismissed without prejudice.
U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno wrote that while Navarro was injured, the potential for injury was open and obvious.
“Although the amended complaint does not include factual allegations describing the ‘high traffic’ area, common sense says that busy areas always raise risk of unexpected physical contact with other persons or objects,” Judge Moreno wrote. “Navarro chose ‘to take the risk,' but the risk, nonetheless, [was] obvious and apparent.”
This was enough for the court to rule that Navarro didn’t state a negligence claim.
Plus, Navarro also didn’t claim that Carnival was aware of any risk that caused her fall. While she said that Carnival was aware that the area was a high-traffic place, her claims that Carnival should have known that the photographer was standing in different areas and angles to snap photos weren’t enough to prove that the cruise line was aware of any danger.
Despite the inadequacies in her lawsuit, Navarro was granted one more chance to correctly allege her claims with another complaint about her negligence claim. Still, Judge Moreno warned that after the third attempt, if Navarro doesn’t properly state a claim, the case will be dismissed with prejudice, meaning she won’t be able to file those claims again.