Royal Caribbean: Cruise liner cleared of wrongdoing in falling death of toddler
Chloe Wiegand plunged from 11th-floor window in 2019
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Your support makes all the difference.Royal Caribbean has been cleared of wrongdoing in the 2019 case of a toddler who fell to her death out of an open cruise ship window.
Business Insider reported that a Florida judge threw out the lawsuit on Tuesday that was filed by the Indiana parents of Chloe Wiegand.
The young girl, who was 18-months-old at the time of her death, apparently slipped from her grandfather’s hands as he was holding her out of an 11th-floor window on the Freedom of the Seas. The child fell 150ft to the pier below as the ship docked in Puerto Rico.
Chloe’s grandfather, Salvatore Anello of Valparaiso, Indiana, was sentenced to three years of probation in February this year after pleading guilty to negligent homicide in February 2020.
US District Court Judge Donald Graham reportedly argued that Anello was to blame for the toddler’s death rather than the cruise line.
“The true risk-creating danger here was Mr. Anello lifting a child up to an open window,’ the judge wrote. “The Plaintiffs have provided no evidence showing the Defendant was on notice of that danger.”
Anello had previously insisted that he is colorblind and was not aware that the window was open. CCTV evidence reportedly showed the man putting his head out of the window before lifting his granddaughter up to the opening.
The lawsuit contended that the company violated industry standards by failing to provide reasonably safe windows in an area where children play on the ship alongside sufficient warning signs.
However, the judge ruled in favour of the cruise liner, saying: “This court finds that a reasonable person through ordinary use of his senses would have known of the dangers associated with Anello’s conduct. Accordingly, the defendant owed no duty to warn of it.”
Michael Winkleman, the Wiegand’s attorney, told The Mail Online that they plan to appeal the decision, saying they were “surprised and deeply saddened” by the court’s ruling.
“This is a matter that should be decided by a jury, and we are confident and hopeful the appellate court will agree,” Mr Winkleman told the outlet.
He added: “We will be filing the appeal shortly and we will continue to fight and raise awareness about the dangers of unintentional toddler window falls. This case was always about Chloe and shining a light on her brief but beautiful life.”
Additional reporting by the Associated Press