NEW YORK -- Lawyers for Royal Caribbean International asked a
Miami-Dade (Fla.) circuit judge to impose a $171,000 fine on
attorneys representing a Virginia family who said their daughter
disappeared while on a Caribbean cruise in March 1998.
The request came almost three months after a Florida judge threw
out two lawsuits filed against Royal Caribbean by Ronald and Ivy
Bradley, the parents of Amy Bradley. The Bradleys claimed their
daughter had been "abducted, hidden and forcibly removed" from
Rhapsody of the Seas in Puerto Rico and was being kept against her
will in Curacao.
Judge Stuart Simons ruled the Bradleys perpetrated "a fraud on
the court" by concealing evidence that witnesses had seen their
daughter living freely in Curacao after the disappearance. He
reserved ruling on sanctions against either the Bradleys or Hall
David & Joseph, the firm that represented them.
Royal Caribbean's attorneys, Kaye Rose & Maltzman of Miami,
said its lawyers spent 1,324 hours working on the case.