Princess Chatter

"A Catholic priest who told his parishioners he was taking time off to spend a week at a spiritual retreat is going to have to explain to them how he came to be rescued from the wreck of Costa Concordia.

For Father Massimo Donghi had booked a cruise instead of locking himself away in prayer and meditation, and was caught out when his niece said on Facebook that he was among family members safe and well after the ship hit rocks two weeks ago.

"What do you want me to say?" the 41-year-old priest told an Italian news magazine. "I have nothing to add. I'm OK although I'm still a bit in shock. I will talk to my parishioners in church. The judgment of others is not important to me."

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/captain-greybeard/2012/01/day-of-reckoning-for-priest-wh-1.html

"Carnival’s Genoa-based Costa Crociere unit said that while a “touristic navigation” five miles from the coast of Giglio was planned for the Concordia on its cruise, it was up to the captain to ensure the safety of the route."

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-28/carnival-sued-in-miami-over-fatal-costa-concordia-shipwreck.html

"MIAMI — While the parent company of the owner of the stricken Costa Concordia is based in Miami, passengers who want to file a lawsuit in U.S. courts over the cruise ship disaster probably will face choppy seas.

Maritime law experts say that similar attempts to sue in the U.S. despite these clauses have been turned away by the U.S. Supreme Court and that the expense of filing a lawsuit in a foreign court has deterred many plaintiffs in the past.

“It’s well-settled law,” said Jerry Hamilton, a maritime attorney who regularly defends cruise lines against lawsuits. “The Supreme Court has said those clauses are valid clauses. They will be upheld.”

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120128/NEWS08/301280040/Cruise-disaster-lawsuits-must-Italy?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

“If you consider that there were 4,200 people on board, you could say things went well, but if the captain hadn’t wasted a precious hour, it would have been comfortable,” Marco Brusco, head of the port captain’s service, a maritime authority, told a Senate committee hearing.

“The lifeboats could have been launched calmly, people could have been reassured. Instead of that, the first hour was lost, people were working under stress, he (Schettino) left and there were contradictory orders,” he said."

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/26/costa-concordia-captain-wasted-a-precious-hour-before-evacuating-ship/

"Bern’s civil complaint against Costa Cruises and its operator, Miami-based Carnival Corporation, faces a major legal problem because of where the lawsuit is being filed, according to legal experts. Included in the fine print on the back of each passenger ticket voucher is a clause stating all lawsuits against the cruise liner must be filed in the country where the company is based. The headquarters for Costa Cruises is Genoa, Italy.

"The lawsuit really faces an uphill battle here in Miami, given the fact that the contract is enforceable," Jerry Hamilton, a Miami-based maritime attorney told FoxNews.com. Hamilton said the 120 American passengers on board the Costa Concordia "gave up their right" to where they can file a lawsuit when they boarded the cruise liner Jan. 13 in Civitavecchia, Italy.

"The accident occurred in Italy, the investigation is in Italy, the evidence and witnesses are in Italy and the majority of the passengers are Italian," said Hamilton. "The court will say that this lawsuit belongs in Italy."

But Bern claims the extraordinary nature of the accident off the Tuscan coast – which killed at least 16 people – should make the criteria on the ticket "null and void."

"You don’t expect that when you get on this Costa Concordia ship in Rome that you are about to become the next Titanic," Bern said. "Nobody signed a contract," he continued. "They got their ticket" and in doing so, "agreed to those terms and conditions of which they had no knowledge."

"Nobody says ‘OK, now before you accept this, read the back of the ticket to make sure you understand how your rights are being limited,'" he said. "I can’t image any are aware of the limitation imposed upon [them] on a ticket," he said. While Hamilton said there is nothing preventing U.S. passengers from filing suit in Italy, he noted that under Italian law there is a cap on the damages.

Other attorneys claim filing a lawsuit in Italy is complicated, and costly for the plaintiffs involved."

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/01/27/costa-concordia-civil-lawsuit-to-be-filed-in-miami-may-face-legal-hurdle/

"Carnival Corp. (CCL), the world’s largest cruise-line owner, was sued in the U.S. over the Jan. 13 wreck of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy, which killed at least 16 people and left the vessel half submerged on its side.

The complaint, alleging negligence and breach of contract, was filed yesterday in federal court in Chicago by crew member Gary Lobaton, who seeks class-action status to represent all victims of the disaster off Giglio Island. The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, has been accused of causing the accident and abandoning ship.

“The defendants failed to properly and timely notify all plaintiffs on board of the deadly and dangerous condition of the cruise ship as to avoid injury and death,” Lobaton, who was living in Lima, Peru, said in the complaint. They “were abandoned by the captain.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-27/carnival-sued-in-u-s-by-crew-member-for-negligence-over-costa-concordia.html

•Why did the ship partially sink? Modern cruise ships are designed to remain afloat even after two of their water-tight compartments are breached, says Richard Pellew, who inspects cruise ships for the United Kingdom's Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

If the gash exposed three compartments or if the crew didn't properly seal them, he and others say, flooding could have spread and capsized the vessel.

"Any vessel that has such a collision could lose the game if response actions by the crew failed or were unorganized," says Anthony Davis, a retired U.S. Coast Guard officer."

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/story/2012-01-26/Question-loom-over-Costa-Concordia-disaster/52808568/1?csp=34news

In answers to prosecutors, defense attorneys and a judge, Schettino has admitted he had made a "mistake" in colliding with the rocks off the island of Giglio.

"I hit this projection of rock, that seems almost stuck into the ship, but this was my mistake," Schettino said in the 126-page transcript. "... There isn't anything I can say, as I was convinced that passing within .28 of a mile there wouldn't be any problem.

The captain also brushed aside suggestions that at 15 knots, he was going too fast, as alleged by prosecutors.

"There isn't a speed limit," he said. "... We had more or less the speed needed to reach Savona on time."

According to the transcript, Schettino maintained he ran the ship aground to keep it from sinking. "This is what allowed me to limit the tilting," he said."

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/27/world/europe/italy-cruise-ship/?hpt=hp_t1