Sacramento woman wins $300K after being overserved alcohol on cruise before fall. A legal expert weighs in.

By Ashley Sharp

From overserved to served with a lawsuit, Carnival Cruise Line has been ordered by a Florida jury to pay $300,000 to a Sacramento woman who, according to a federal lawsuit, crewmembers served 14 tequila shots before she fell down a stairwell and was injured. 

Diana Sanders, a nurse at a Vacaville hospital, filed the lawsuit after the January 2024 incident aboard the Carnival Radiance. 

She told CBS News Sacramento that there is so much more to this story than her just being overserved alcohol. She said it’s about systemic safety failures. She was not yet ready to share her experience in an on-camera interview. 

According to the lawsuit, “Carnival crewmembers served [Sanders] approximately fourteen alcoholic beverages within a span of approximately eight hours… due to her inebriated state that was caused by this over-service of alcohol… [she] suffered a severe fall.” 

“When you do take these people on your cruise ship, you are responsible for their well-being,” Sacramento defense attorney Mark Reichel, unrelated to this case, told CBS News Sacramento. “You can’t over serve someone, and if something happens to them, the bar is, in fact, liable.”

 As for the fact that this presumably took place in international waters, Reichel says those laws would still apply.

“Where do they do business out of? And it is international waters, but where did they leave from?” Reichel explained.

The Florida jury found Carnival to be 60% liable for the incident, for failing to exercise reasonable care. Sanders was found to be 40% negligent for her own consumption.

Sanders claims she was visibly intoxicated, blacked out and woke up at the bottom of a crew-only stairwell, where she suffered a head injury and was covered in bruises she could not explain on her inner thighs and arms.

“They gave me conflicting information. They treated me like a criminal. I was very concerned they would not tell me exactly what happened to me,” Sanders said in a social media video posted by her attorney, Spencer Aronfeld.

Sanders says she filed the lawsuit because the cruise line would provide no video showing what unfolded.

“Come to find out they had all the tapes right before but nothing afterwards, and they will not show us what happened that day,” Sanders said.

According to the lawsuit, her injuries were severe. It reads, “As a result of these crewmembers’ misrepresentations, [Sanders] has suffered severe bodily injuries resulting in pain and suffering, disability, scarring, disfigurement, mental anguish, loss of independence, loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, expense of hospitalization, medical and nursing care and treatment.”

Aronfeld says while passengers do have the responsibility to drink responsibly, cruise lines must also serve responsibly.

“When you serve somebody who is visibly intoxicated repeatedly drink after drink after drink, it can lead to disastrous consequences,” said Aronfeld.

Aronfeld points out in the lawsuit, “To maximize revenue, Carnival deliberately designs its vessels to ensure there are alcohol serving stations in every nook and cranny of the ship.”

Considering that Sanders had purchased a drink package on the cruise, Aronfeld says this case highlights the dangers of overconsumption and popular all-inclusive drink packages.

“Do you think that makes a cruise line rethink a service like that? Because that is the culture, right? To keep drinking to get your money’s worth?” I asked Reichel.

“You couldn’t be more right that the expectation of what they’re purchasing is the experience that she had… you know, I think it’s within limitations, and the alcohol is the limitation,” Reichel said.

Carnival representatives told CBS News they disagree with the verdict and plan to pursue an appeal and a new trial.