Robert Jones: Celebrity Cruises faces $1M lawsuit for leaving passenger's dead body in walk-in beverage cooler
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA: Celebrity Cruises is being sued for $1 million by a widow and her family for mishandling a dead body. Marilyn Jones, the 78-year-old wife of late Robert Jones, 79, alleges in a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday, April 19, that the body of her husband, who died of heart attack, was not in the ship’s morgue, instead, it was kept in a beverage cooler.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit states Robert died because of a heart attack on August 15 onboard the Celebrity Equinox. But his body was stored for nearly a week inside a walk-in beverage cooler rather than the morgue. In the cooler, his body was not on a bed or medical table, instead it “was laying in a bag on a palette on the floor,” reports NBC News.
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Widow was asked to make her own arrangements
Daily Mail reported that after his death, Marilyn, his wife, was informed that her husband's body could be stored in the ship's morgue for up to six days until they returned to Florida She had the option to either removed the body in San Juan or store it for six days until they arrived in Fort Lauderdale. Celebrity employees told Plaintiff Marilyn Jones that if she had her husband’s body taken ashore in San Juan, she would be required to stay in San Juan with his body and would have to make arrangements for transport for herself and her husband’s body back to the mainland United States.
'Cruise acted recklessly, willfully, and wantonly'
The suit read, "The cooler in which Mr Jones’ body was found by the funeral employee had drinks placed outside of the cooler, and was not at a temperature which was sufficient nor proper for storing a dead body to prevent decomposition," and further read, "By allowing Mr Jones’ body to decompose while on the ship to such a state that his family was unable to have open casket funeral and wake services, denying his wife of 55 years, children, grandchildren, friends, and community the closure their family and community deserved, a practice which was a part of his family’s culture." The complaint also stated, "The Celebrity crew in charge of storing Mr Jones body during the six remaining days of the cruise acted recklessly, willfully, and wantonly, and without care for the Jones family’s loved one by failing to ensure that the morgue was properly working for the duration of the near week that the remains were stored under their care."
37 deaths on the cruise since 2001
The lawsuit stressed that the cruise should have been equipped to handle a death, stating "heart attacks and cardiac incidents as the leading cause of death among passengers on its ships, having had at least 37 deaths on board its own cruise ships since 2001. The family's attorneys are now seeking a jury trial.