For those of you who live outside our great sunburnt nation, this class action will target what on earth happened when the cruise liner the Ruby Princess disgorged passengers (some with COVID-19 symptons) into the middle of Sydney’s CBD a couple of weeks back, virtually unchecked by state or federal authorities.
Some say because a state politician’s relatives were on the cruise liner, others have suggested that a certain evangelical cult closely linked to Australia’s Prime Minister and members of the cabinet had a number of members on board the ship.
Who knows the reason(s); hopefully this class action will find out more.
There’s also a criminal investigation underway by the NSW Police.
In an update to Lawyers Weekly, Shine Lawyers has confirmed that hundreds of people have sent enquiries to the firm for a class action, including 19 overseas guests registering with them, with people who also had tested positive for the virus.
The latest confirmation from Shine comes after the firm told Lawyers Weekly it had received numerous enquiries in March.
Two more Ruby Princess passengers have died from coronavirus, taking Australia’s death toll to 61.
A 74-year-old woman in Newcastle and a 79-year-old man on the Northern Beaches died.
Vicky Antzoulatos, Shine Lawyers’ class action practice leader said that this investigation will explore whether legal avenues in negligence, breach of contract and breaches of the Australian Consumer Law exist to hold the Ruby Princess owners and operators, Carnival Corporation, to account for failing to safeguard and protect its passengers from the impact of COVID-19.
“The involvement of the relevant state and Commonwealth authorities in the docking and disembarkation of the ship will also be explored,” Ms Antzoulatos said.
Ms Antzoulatos has also said that the firm had already done considerable work on a potential class action against Carnival as it had investigated bringing a similar case in 2019 over several outbreaks of norovirus on the Sun Princess.
“There are some jurisdictional issues but it is listed in the UK and this is a giant of world companies,” Ms Antzoulatos said.
