A widow and her family sue Celebrity Cruises for mistreating her late husband's body after he died aboard the ship. It is said that the body was left to decompose, which resulted in extreme emotional trauma for the family.
On August 15, 2022 Robert Jones passed unexpectedly following a heart attack while sailing the Caribbean on the Celebrity Equinox. His spouse, Marilyn Jones, was given the option to either take his body ashore in San Juan, Puerto Rico or have it stored in the morgue on the ship until they returned to Florida. According to Jones, the ship's crew members informed her that if she chooses to perform the autopsy in San Juan, the likelihood of it happening was only 50 percent. Furthermore, she would have to remain on the island until the autopsy and the body's embalming was finished. As a result, Marilyn decides to keep the body on the ship.
Upon arriving back in Florida, a sheriff’s deputy from Broward County and a funeral home owner discovered that the morgue on the cruise ship was not operational. They found the deceased husband's body decomposing inside a drinks cooler on board. The lawsuit alleges that the temperature inside the cooler was much warmer than the required near-freezing temperature for proper corpse storage, and the remains had reached an "advanced stage of decomposition".
Woman Sue Celebrity Cruises
The lawsuit claims that mishandling of the deceased person's body has caused extreme emotional distress to the family. The family has been traumatized by having to witness the horrific decomposition of the body, which they believe deprived the deceased individual of their dignity.
Jones' legal representatives are requesting a trial to be held before a jury. The lawsuit contends that inadequacies in the storage of the body resulted in the inability to prepare it for a public viewing or funeral, thus denying the family the opportunity to have the kind of funeral they desired.
The claimants, which include his spouse, children, and grandchildren, are pursuing a sum of $1 million as restitution.
Celebrity Cruises chose not to provide a statement in relation to the case, citing its sensitivity and respect for the family. The Celebrity Equinox is a cruise ship that sets sail from Fort Lauderdale all year round and travels in the Caribbean. Registered in Malta, it is capable of accommodating around 3,000 passengers and approximately 1,200 crew members.
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