Preetha Amaran
RCCL Protects Themselves And Doctor
With Deliberate Misinformation - April 30, 2007
April 30, 2010
Vennila Amaran, mother of Preetha Amaran, brought suit against Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. (RCCL), and physicians serving aboard the vessel, Enchantment of the Seas, as well as Steiner Transocean Limited, for brain injuries suffered by her daughter as a result of a cardiac arrest, which occurred when her daughter was exercising on a treadmill at the ship's spa and fitness center. Her daughter later became totally disabled as a result of the injuries sustained.
Dr. Aubyn Marath, was added as a defendant after the first amended complaint was filed in March of 2005. Attorneys for Ms. Amaran attempted to locate Dr. Marath for service of process by sending discovery requests directed to RCCL. Her attorneys propounded interrogatories to RCCL in December of 2004 and October of 2005. On both occasions, in answer to interrogatories, RCCL stated that the address for Dr. Marath was in care of a South African employment agency, Medsource CC P.O. Box 11547, Bloubergrant 7443, South Africa.
On March 29, 2006, RCCL wrote to Ms. Amaran's counsel stating that the doctors and nurses had returned to their respective homes and therefore RCCL exercised no control to get any of them to travel to the United States to provide testimony.
It was later learned by Ms. Amaran's attorneys that during the time RCCL answered the interrogatories, Dr. Marath maintained a residence in Florida, owned real property in Tampa, Florida, owned motor vehicles registered in Florida, and, as of March 2007, had a Florida driver's license. Dr. Marath had a faculty appointment at the University of South Florida Medical School in Tampa and was president and trustee of Cardiostart USA. The registered agent's address for the company was in Brandon, Florida. The tax documents issued by RCCL in the doctor's name also indicated a Tampa address.
After numerous motions to compel, reflected in the record docket, RCCL eventually provided an accurate address for Dr. Marath on November 15, 2006, in a letter by counsel stating that, after additional investigation, his address was in Tampa, Florida. In that same month, RCCL provided the personnel file of Dr. Marath which contained and had contained the information concerning the doctor's Florida addresses.
Ms. Amaran attempted to take Dr. Marath's deposition on several occasions from January of 2007 through March of 2007. Due to Dr. Marath's schedule on Royal Caribbean Cruises, he was not produced for deposition until March 24, 2007, in Tampa, Florida, subject to an agreement that the doctor would not be served at that time.
It was further agreed that service would be, and, in fact, was effected on July 6, 2007, in Portland, Oregon, where the doctor was then residing. On July 30, 2007, Dr. Marath moved to dismiss the amended complaint on grounds of insufficiency and untimeliness of service of process under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.140(b)(2)(4) and (5), alleging lack of personal service, and to quash service of process pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.070(j), as beyond the 120-day time limit for service. The trial court failed to find good cause attributable to the delay in serving Dr. Marath and dismissed the action although the statute of limitations had already run.
Although Dr. Marath's RCCL personnel file, which was not provided to Ms. Amaran until March of 2006, contained several Florida contacts and addresses where he could have been located and served with process, RCCL failed to produce the personnel file or even attempt to provide any information which could have led to an address or location for serving the doctor other than one in South Africa.
The trial court failed to consider that the incorrect or misleading information which was knowingly provided by RCCL led to the delay in service of Dr. Marath. This failure to provide useful and correct information as to Dr. Marath's whereabouts, coupled with Dr. Marath's postponement of the scheduling of his deposition on numerous occasions until such time as plaintiff's counsel agreed to take the doctor's deposition without serving him with process at the deposition, amounted to good cause for failure to serve within the 120-day period within the meaning of Rule 1.070(j).
The record in this case reflects Dr. Marath is a British national, whose specialty is cardiothoracic surgery. He testified in his deposition he lived in Florida between 1994 and 1998. He and his wife then moved to Oregon, where he became associated with Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon. He first served on a Royal Caribbean ship as a shipboard doctor in October of 2003. The total amount of time he has served as a shipboard doctor was approximately four months on four or five different occasions. Except for ordinary professional and personal travel, he has at all other times lived and worked in Portland, Oregon.
Appeal after appeal, this was finally settled on April 7, 2010 in favor of Marath.
This is the game RCCL played. The doctor was living in Oregon when he was hired by RCCL through, they say, a crewing agent in South Africa. They give the crewing agency as contact when it was known he had been living in Oregon and later in Florida. When the victim chases around the globe trying to find the doctor, the courts say they didn't try hard enough.
In the Q1 2010 report Steiner says, "December 2004, a personal injury action was filed against us in the Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County, Florida by Vennila Amaran as guardian of Preetha Amaran (the \"Plaintiff\") alleging that the Plaintiff suffered serious injuries in connection with her use of an exercise machine in a spa operated by us. The Plaintiff is alleging an unspecified amount of damages. While we, typically, maintain insurance coverage for claims of this nature, due to matters unrelated to the nature of this action, the Company has learned that such insurance coverage may not be available to us in this case, although we are seeking to obtain such coverage or indemnity for the lack thereof."
As of March 31, 2010 the case against Steiner still had not been resolved.
The case record is here
