Billera Law Files Lawsuit Against Cruise Line on Behalf of Waitress Who Was Drugged, Punched, Beaten, Strangled And Raped on Cruise Ship

BOCA RATON, Fla., March 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A waitress who was drugged, punched, beaten, strangled and raped while working on Norwegian Cruise Line's ship the M/V Norwegian Pearl has filed suit against the company for her damages.  According to the lawsuit, Plaintiff Jane Doe¹ was attacked by a co-worker in a dormitory-style cabin while three cabinmates and a supervisor stood outside the door listening to her screams. After the attack, she ran out of the cabin naked from the waist down screaming and crying.  The cabinmates then forced her back into the same cabin where she was assaulted a second time.

Claimant's attacker, Kevin Paul, was arrested by the Miami-Dade Police Department and eventually pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual battery.

Billera Law served NCL with a lawsuit this week for Ms. Doe's rape and battery that occurred March 6, 2016.  "Cruise lines have an absolute duty to provide a safe place to work for its crewmembers," said lead attorney John Billera. "Ms. Doe has suffered horribly at the hands of NCL and its employee."

The lawsuit claims that over the course of the many years preceding Ms. Doe's rape, there have been many incidents of sexual harassment and sexual battery, including rape, of female crew members and passengers on NCL'S fleet of cruise ships.  The suit claims that NCL knows that date rape drugs have been involved in other shipboard rapes of female crew members and passengers.

The U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate have conducted five Congressional hearings over the past six years on the issue of cruise ship crime, including the high frequency of rapes.

The lawsuit claims that NCL is strictly liable for Ms. Doe's violent rape by an NCL employee, that its security was negligent, and that NCL restrained Ms. Doe, refused her medical care, and then fired her.  Ms. Doe claims severe mental and emotional trauma from the attack.

Billera Law is a leading South Florida law firm representing passengers and crewmembers involved in cruise ship accidents, sexual assaults, and injuries. Billera Law represents crewmember and passengers from all over the United States, Europe, India, the Caribbean, and Latin America. For further information, contact John Billera, Esq. at [email protected] or 561-218-4639.

¹ "Jane Doe" is a pseudonym.

SOURCE Billera Law