By Rachel Stone

Law360 (October 2, 2020, 8:00 PM EDT) -- Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. asked a federal judge to dismiss a negligence lawsuit brought by the widow and daughter of a passenger who died after contracting COVID-19 aboard the ship, arguing that their claims are preempted by the relevant maritime law known as the Death on the High Seas Act.

Because Juishan Hsu and Vivian Chen claim their deceased loved one Chung Chen contracted the coronavirus aboard the round-trip Ruby Princess cruise from Australia to New Zealand, the cruise line on Thursday argued that their claims should be tossed because Chen wasn't injured on U.S. soil. Although Chen died in Los Angeles, Princess Cruise Lines said, the DOHSA covers deaths from an injury that occurred three nautical miles from shore.

"In the specific context of COVID-19, courts in this district have confirmed that the place of injury is the location of the vessel when the decedent contracted the disease," the cruise line said.

Hsu and Chen first brought their complaint in April 2020, when they demanded more than $1 million in damages from the cruise line after Chung Chen's death.

They claimed Princess Cruise Lines had maintained a "lackadaisical approach" to the safety of its passengers and crew members and said that if they had known the "actual risk of exposure prior to boarding, they would have never boarded the ship, and they would've boarded the first flight out of Australia and returned home."

Hsu and Chen also contracted coronavirus onboard the cruise, according to the initial complaint, and had symptoms including extreme fatigue, fever and coughing.

The federal court judge found that Hsu needed to show that she had been appointed the personal representative of the estate of her late husband, and dismissed her initial complaint with room to amend once she could establish that relationship.

Princess Cruise Lines argued Thursday that Chen's family members' negligence claims can't hold because the entirety of their cruise trip occurred between Australia and New Zealand, meaning Chung Chen would have been infected far from the shore of the United States. Chen's place of injury would therefore prompt coverage under DOHSA, the cruise line argued, precluding the family's negligence claims.

The cruise line also cited a similar case, Maa v. Carnival Corp. & PLC , in which a California federal court dismissed claims brought by the family of a man who caught COVID-19 on a cruise between Buenos Aires and Barbados, on the grounds that DOHSA applied even though the man died on land in the United States.

"The court reached this conclusion notwithstanding allegations that Mr. Maa's death occurred on land and that certain acts of negligence occurred on land at Princess' offices in California," Princess Cruise Lines wrote. "As this court made clear in Maa, such arguments are irrelevant and cannot avoid imposition of DOHSA."

The cruise line also urged the federal judge to toss the survivors' claims seeking damages for loss of consortium, or loss of benefits from a family member, arguing that those aren't covered under federal maritime law.

Princess Cruise Lines has been hit with a wave of suits claiming the company knowingly let its Grand Princess vessel set sail on a voyage the same day passengers who had COVID-19 symptoms disembarked from the ship's previous voyage.

In July, the cruise line was hit with another class action alleging that a COVID-19 outbreak on a March cruise left at least two dead and passengers trapped in their cabins for days.

Juishan Hsu and Vivian Chen are represented by Michael A. Simmrin of Simmrin Law Group and Debi F. Chalik of Chalik & Chalik PA.

Princess Cruise Lines is represented by Jeffrey B. Maltzman, Edgar R. Nield, Gabrielle De Santis Nield and Rafaela P. Castells of Maltzman & Partners PA.

--Additional reporting by Sarah Jarvis, Nathan Hale, Dean Seal, Rachel O'Brien and Joyce Hanson. Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.

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