A jury awarded Diana Sanders $300,000 after finding Carnival Cruise Line responsible for overserving her alcohol aboard the Carnival Radiance, according to court records put into the record on April 13. Sanders said bartenders served her at least 14 shots in less than nine hours.
Court records show Sanders was 45 years old. She claimed crew members kept serving her even as she was visibly intoxicated, and her attorney said she later blacked out and woke up at the bottom of a staircase.
The verdict matters because it puts a dollar figure on a passenger injury claim that turned on what happened during a drinking spree at sea. The jury’s finding gave Sanders a win on the central issue in the case: whether Carnival bore responsibility for continuing to serve a passenger who had already had too much.
The dispute did not end there. Carnival argued in court filings that Sanders did not identify specific negligent employees and questioned whether she was behaving as if she were drunk at the time. After the verdict, the company said it will appeal, setting up another round of legal review over the same events on the Carnival Radiance.
The case is part of a lawsuit involving Carnival Cruise Line and a passenger on the ship, and it comes as the company faces separate legal scrutiny in other litigation involving cruise line conduct. For Sanders, the jury’s award answers the question at the center of the case: the panel concluded Carnival was responsible for overserving her.