A Florida federal judge has adopted a magistrate’s recommendation denying arbitration for Royal Caribbean in a suit alleging a now-former employee secretly filmed passengers after placing hidden cameras in their rooms.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles on Tuesday wholly adopted U.S. Magistrate Judge Detra Shaw-Wilder’s recommended ruling issued April 22 in a putative class action accusing Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. of negligence and inflicting emotional distress by video voyeurism and sexual assault, among other claims.
In rejecting the company’s motion to enforce an arbitration clause in the passengers’ contracts, Judge Shaw-Wilder had determined that both the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act and federal maritime law barred arbitration of the case.
“The court has conducted a de novo review … and agrees with Judge Shaw-Wilder’s well-reasoned findings and recommendation that the motion be denied,” Tuesday’s order states.
Counsel for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Royal Caribbean had attempted to dissuade Judge Gayles’ from adopting the magistrate’s recommendation, objecting on May 11 that Judge Shaw-Wilder wrongly concluded that the federal Maritime Statute blocked arbitration for emotional injuries when it only bars arbitration for physical ones.
At best, the company argued, the Maritime Statute is ambiguous as to whether emotional injuries can be arbitrated, and as such the court should apply federal policy favoring arbitration and resolve that ambiguity in favor of arbitration.
The lead plaintiff in the case, identified only as Jane Doe, sued in October 2024 on behalf of a putative class of passengers who were aboard the Symphony of the Seas between Dec. 1, 2023, and Feb. 26, 2024, and who stayed in cabins that were serviced by former crew member Arvin Joseph Mirasol.
Mirasol admitted to breaking into passengers’ cabins, hiding under their beds while they were in the room, and videotaping women and even minor children while they were undressing and taking showers. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in August 2024 after previously pleading guilty to producing child pornography.
Mirasol’s actions were uncovered in February 2024 after a guest onboard the Symphony of the Seas discovered a hidden camera affixed to the counter under the sink in their bathroom, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Doe had argued it would be “absurd” to send the case to arbitration because the proposed class did not agree to arbitrate these kinds of intentional tort claims.
Royal Caribbean is represented by Kurt K. Lunkenheimer and John J. Sullivan of Cozen O’Connor and Jerry D. Hamilton, Krista Fowler Acuña and Kassandra Doyle Taylor of Hamilton Miller & Birthisel LLP.
Doe is represented by Jason R. Margulies, Michael A. Winkleman, Jacqueline Garcell and Marc E. Weiner of Lipcon Margulies & Winkleman PA and Adam M. Moskowitz of The Moskowitz Law Firm.
The case is Doe et al. v. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. et al., case number 1:24-cv-23953, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
