January 2012

Attorneys for six passengers of the Costa Concordia reportedly filed a law suit in Miami’s federal court  requesting USD 450 million in punitive damages and USD 10 million in compensatory damages. The complaint says plaintiffs were “in terror of catastrophic injury, death, drowning, having been placed in a situation where common sense said the vessel was sinking but the orders from the crew were to return to their cabins.”

As reported by "Travel Weekly", New York-based personal-injury law firm Proner and Proner said it joined forces with Codacons, the Italian consumer-protection organization, in filing a class action against Costa Cruises. A second New York law firm, Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik, also will represent passengers in the class action.

Proner said that the suit will seek at least USD 160,000 for each passenger who was aboard the ship at the time of the Jan. 13 disaster near the Italian island of Giglio.

Vice-President Siim Kallas, European Commissioner for Transport has asked that the currently ongoing review of EU passenger ship safety legislation take fully into account any lessons to be learnt from the Costa Concordia tragedy. The review will prioritise, in particular, the issues of: design and stability of passenger ships, technological developments in the sector, crew training and safe operation, including emergency evacuation procedures. Vice-President Kallas will outline the Commission's position to the European Parliament's Transport Committee on Tuesday 24 January 2012.

About to take a train from Solingen to Dresden, the plaintiff who had already bought her ticket for the train ride slipped on the platform because of black ice and got injured. After a claim against the company which owns the station premises was dismissed because that company had assigned its duties to clear the platforms from snow and ice to a third company, the plaintiff filed a new law suit against the railway company.