The fiancee of a person who died on a cruise ship has filed a wrongful loss of life lawsuit in opposition to Royal Caribbean, alleging it negligently served him no less than 33 alcoholic drinks and was accountable for his loss of life after crew members tackled him to the bottom and stood on him with their full physique weight.
Connie Aguilar’s lawsuit for the loss of life of 35-year-old Michael Virgil seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial. Royal Caribbean didn’t instantly reply to an e mail requesting touch upon Tuesday.
Aguilar and Virgil had been on a roundtrip voyage from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico, with different members of their household, together with their son, on the time of Virgil’s loss of life in December 2024, the lawsuit mentioned.
Crew members on board Navigator of the Seas served Virgil greater than two dozen drinks, after which he acquired misplaced and have become agitated looking for his room, it mentioned. That is when crew members tackled him and stood on him with their full weight, the lawsuit fees. They subjected him to extended inclined restraint, compressed his again and torso, and impaired his respiration, the lawsuit mentioned.
On the captain’s request, crew members administered a sedative and sprayed him with pepper spray, the lawsuit mentioned.
This remedy led to respiratory failure, cardiac arrest and Virgil’s loss of life, it continued.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner dominated the loss of life a murder. It mentioned Virgil died from the mixed results of mechanical asphyxia, which is when drive or an object blocks respiration; weight problems; an enlarged coronary heart and alcohol intoxication.
Video shot by passenger Christopher McHale and obtained by KTTV of Los Angeles reveals Virgil in a slim hallway kicking a door.
A KTTV report mentioned Virgil screamed profanities, threatened to kill McHale and a crew member and chased them down a hallway. McHale mentioned the crew member locked himself in a towel room, which Virgil then tried to kick down.
The video captures safety guards and others finally holding Virgil down on the ground.
McHale mentioned no person deserved to die the way in which Virgil did.
“He simply wanted some assist,” McHale mentioned.
The lawsuit mentioned crew members mustn’t have served Virgil alcohol as a result of he “exhibited apparent visible indicators of intoxication” and had been negligent for doing so, the lawsuit mentioned.
Maritime widespread regulation requires carriers like Royal Caribbean to “supervise and help passengers prone to interact in conduct harmful to themselves or others,” the lawsuit mentioned.
Royal Caribbean additionally didn’t train its proper to cease serving alcohol to Virgil to guard his life, the lawsuit mentioned.
The corporate’s ships, it added, are intentionally designed to make sure there are alcohol-serving stations “in each nook and cranny” and the corporate “does as a lot as attainable to encourage and facilitate alcohol consumption” on board.
The lawsuit mentioned medical personnel on board lacked correct training, licenses, expertise and abilities and it didn’t correctly practice crew members to evaluate when to cease serving a passenger.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court docket in Miami, the place Royal Caribbean, the world’s second largest cruise firm, has its headquarters.
