Nicaraguan Crewmember Sues Carnival Cruise Line and Retail Concessionaire After Storeroom Fall on Carnival Radiance

Joan Yamilith Sinclair, a resident of Managua, Nicaragua, has filed a comprehensive maritime personal injury lawsuit under the Jones Act and general maritime law against Carnival Corporation, Harding Brothers Incorporated, and Harding Brothers Guernsey Limited in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The lawsuit, filed under Case Number 1:26-cv-26953-JEM, arises from severe spinal and bodily injuries Sinclair allegedly sustained while working aboard the Carnival Radiance in late 2023. Sinclair contends that her employers forced her to perform dangerous physical labor in direct violation of strict medical restrictions, maintained a hazardous storeroom environment, and systematically denied her necessary medical care and statutory maintenance and cure benefits.

Retail Crewmember Injured in Carnival Radiance Storeroom Fall While Under Strict Medical Lifting Restrictions

According to the factual allegations set forth in the complaint, Sinclair joined the crew of the Carnival Radiance in August 2023 to work in the shipboard retail concessions. Her daily tasks included staffing Deck 5 retail shops, setting up promotional display tables, and transporting inventory from the storeroom located on Deck 0. In early October 2023, while the ship was sailing, Sinclair reported severe abdominal pain and heavy bleeding to the ship medical center. After emergency shipboard care and an urgent shoreside gynecological examination in Ensenada, Mexico, examining doctors diagnosed her with uterine leiomyomatosis requiring definitive surgical intervention by hysterectomy. Although shipboard medical staff documented that Sinclair required surgery and imposed an explicit medical restriction limiting her from lifting items over 15 kilograms, the retail management team allegedly refused to repatriate her for treatment. Instead, management kept her aboard for six additional weeks and allegedly pressured her to continue lifting heavy promotional displays and merchandise bins beyond her prescribed medical limits.

Dangerous Storeroom Conditions and Lack of Safety Equipment Led to High Shelf Fall on Underway Vessel

On the evening of October 5, 2023, while the cruise ship was actively maneuvering at sea, Sinclair was assigned to retrieve retail stock alone in the Deck 0 storeroom. The complaint alleges that the storeroom was maintained in an unreasonably hazardous condition, featuring high shelves with items stowed well above shoulder height without providing step stools, safety ladders, or fall protection devices. The walkway below was allegedly obstructed by piles of hard plastic storage containers. While attempting to reach stock on an elevated shelf, Sinclair fell from the shelving structure and struck the hard plastic bins on the deck, suffering acute injuries to her lumbar spine, hip, and left leg. A crewmember from the engine department discovered her on the deck and helped her back to her feet, but her supervisor allegedly dismissed the accident, laughed at her complaints of severe pain, neglected to submit an official accident report, and refused to send her to the ship infirmary for evaluation.

Shipboard Management Accused of Blocking Medical Center Visits and Refusing Timely Shoreside Intervention

Over the following six weeks, Sinclair asserts that shipboard shop management actively obstructed her access to medical treatment. Despite continuous requests from infirmary nurses seeking her release for scheduled medical follow-ups, management repeatedly refused to permit her to leave her post during operational hours. Sinclair allegedly reported this mistreatment to shipboard human resources representatives on multiple occasions, and the shipboard physician also escalated the manager interference to human resources, yet no corrective action was taken. Sinclair was compelled to complete the remainder of her employment contract while enduring continuous physical pain and worsening hemorrhaging before finally disembarking in mid-November 2023 to undergo an abdominal hysterectomy in Nicaragua.

Defendants Sued for Jones Act Negligence, Unseaworthiness, and Willful Failure to Pay Maintenance and Cure

Following her repatriation, medical testing revealed that Sinclair had suffered multilevel facet synovitis, diffuse disc bulging, a posterior annular tear at L4-L5 contacting nerve roots, and left lateral femoral cutaneous nerve neuropraxia. The complaint states seventeen legal counts under the Jones Act and general maritime law against Carnival Corporation as the vessel operator and borrowing employer, as well as against the domestic and foreign Harding retail entities. Sinclair alleges that the defendants breached their fundamental maritime duties by maintaining an unseaworthy vessel, ordering work contrary to medical orders, providing inadequate crew assistance, and failing to provide prompt and adequate medical treatment. Furthermore, Sinclair accuses the cruise line and its concessionaires of willfully, arbitrarily, and callously cutting off maintenance and cure benefits, terminating wage payments prematurely, and refusing to fund recommended spinal interventions and neuropathic care, warranting substantial compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney fees.

Cruise line employees, concession workers, and seafarers injured while working aboard cruise ships or denied essential medical care by maritime employers have clear rights under federal maritime law. Ship operators and their contractors must provide a seaworthy working environment, respect medical work restrictions, and provide maintenance and cure benefits until an injured mariner achieves maximum recovery. If you or a loved one suffered an injury or denial of medical care while serving aboard a cruise vessel, reach out to an experienced maritime and cruise ship injury lawyer to evaluate your legal remedies.

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Disclaimer: Our firm does not represent the plaintiff in this case and is not involved in the litigation. The information provided is a summary of allegations based on publicly available court filings. We make no representations about the truth of these allegations, are not commenting on the merits of the case, and are not predicting any outcome.