Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. v. Spearman
The Third DCA affirmed a $20.3 million Jones Act negligence/unseaworthiness verdict on liability, but remanded because the trial court failed to consider the five statutory factors in section 768.74(5) when ruling on Royal Caribbean's remittitur motion. The court held the two-issue rule barred reversal based on the erroneous admission of plaintiff's alternative-design expert testimony (since three other unchallenged theories of liability supported the general verdict), but nonetheless explained at length that the untested CAD-prototype design testimony should have been excluded under Daubert and section 90.702.
Key facts
- Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. sued by Spearman, a seaman injured aboard a cruise ship, for Jones Act negligence and unseaworthiness.
- Trial court entered a general verdict for plaintiff in the amount of $20.3 million on multiple liability theories, including one based on expert testimony regarding an untested computer-aided design (CAD) alternative design that was never built, tested, peer-reviewed, or industry-approved.
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Why it matters
This is one of the Third DCA's fuller post-2019 Daubert analyses of a litigation-created alternative design, and defense counsel in products and design-defect cases can cite it for the proposition that an untested CAD… — full analysis with a trial
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