Products Liability Law Reporter

A federal district court held that a cruise line was not liable under a strict products liability theory for injuries resulting from a passenger’s use of an amusement attraction that the cruise line had modified but did not sell or rent.

Royal Caribbean cruise ship passenger Dennis Lalonde was using the FlowRider, an amusement attraction on the deck of the ship. To use the FlowRider, a person must stand on a quasi-surfboard in flowing water, which then moves him or her across the FlowRider. When Lalonde’s instructor let go of his wrist, he fell backward and moved into a wash-out zone, where he struck a wall. As a result, he suffered fractured vertebra in his neck, among other injuries. He sued Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., alleging negligence and strict products liability for the FlowRider’s defective design and inadequate warnings. Among other things, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant had modified and placed its FlowRiders on its cruise ships without padding or other safety devices.

The defense moved to dismiss the plaintiff’s strict liability claims.

Granting the motion, the court noted that the Restatement (Second) of Torts §402A defines strict products liability and provides that one who sells a defective product that is unreasonably dangerous may be liable for physical harm to the ultimate user or consumer if, among other things, the seller is engaged in the business of selling such a product. Here, the court said, the plaintiff’s strict liability claims are insufficient in that he does not allege that the defendant sold the FlowRider after modifying it for its cruise ships. The plaintiff’s strict products liability claim, in contrast to his claim for negligence, requires the defendant to be a seller engaged in the business of selling, whether the defendant is a codesigner or comanufacturer of the FlowRider by virtue of the modifications that were made to accommodate the cruise ship. There is no Florida, federal Eleventh Circuit, or U.S. Supreme Court precedent that expands strict liability law to encompass an entity that modifies a product but does not sell or rent out the product, the court found.

Thus, dismissal of the plaintiff’s strict liability claims was warranted.

Citation: Lalonde v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., 2019 WL 144129 (S.D. Fla. Jan. 9, 2019).