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Lawsuit for Indiana Toddler Against Royal Caribbean Can Proceed According to Judge
A lawsuit filed in federal court by the family of an Indiana toddler who fell to her death off a cruise ship is moving forward. A judge in the Southern District of Florida denied a motion by Royal Caribbean Cruises to have the lawsuit dismissed.
Eighteen-month-old Chloe Wiegand fell from an open window of a cruise ship docked in Puerto Rico in July. The 18-month-old girl was playing with her grandfather in a dining hall on deck 11 of the Freedom of the Seas, Port Authority spokesman José Carmona had said at the time. The dining area has large windows, and one pane was open, he said.
The judge on Thursday also ordered the cruise line to respond within five days to the plaintiff’s assertions that the company did not produce video from some cameras on the ship. As part of the wrongful death suit, the Wiegand family’s attorney in January released reenactment photos, saying they are evidence the grandfather couldn’t physically lean out of the window from which the toddler fell, as Royal Caribbean has alleged.
The photos were taken in January on the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship from which Chloe fell. In a legal response to the defense motion, the family said Royal Caribbean provided footage of only two of the 13 available cameras in the area.