Trial Magazine

Joyce Higgs, 67, was taking a cruise with her family on the M/V Costa Luminosa. While carrying her breakfast plate away from a buffet line, she tripped over a cleaning bucket that a crew member had left in the dining area. Higgs suffered a broken left shoulder, a broken arm, and a torn rotator cuff.

She sued Costa Crociere S.p.A., which owned and operated the ship, alleging general negligence and liability under general maritime law. A jury awarded approximately $1.3 million; however, the Eleventh Circuit reversed based on the trial court’s failure to allow evidence of Higgs’s purported prior falls.

Higgs, who suffered significant shoulder deterioration and developed tendon damage, necessitating surgeries, retried her case against the defendant. The defendant asserted that the incident was Higgs’s fault and that it had no notice of the open and obvious danger.

The court issued an adverse inference jury instruction, finding that the defendant had violated discovery rules. A jury awarded approximately $1.2 million, including $61,000 in medical expenses, finding Higgs 10 percent at fault. The court denied posttrial motions.

Citation: Higgs v. Costa Crociere S.p.A. Co., No. 0:15-cv-60280-JIC (S.D. Fla. Jan. 3, 2019).

Plaintiff counsel: Angela Arango-Chaffin, Miami; and AAJ member Robert Chaffin and Nicholas Homan, both of Houston.