Costa Cruises has extended to March 31 the deadline for acceptance of its compensation proposal for guests involved in the Costa Concordia accident.
“The decision was taken to offer passengers more time to evaluate the proposal and to exercise their claims with less urgency. While the date for acceptance of the proposal has been extended, the process to redeem the compensation package and its terms remain unchanged from when it was offered Jan. 27,” Costa said in a statement.
The compensation package offers uninjured passengers $14,400 each. Costa said it would enter into separate agreements with injured passengers and the families of those who died.
The Costa Concordia struck a rocky reef Jan. 13 near the island of Giglio, off the Tuscany coast. Sixteen people died and 16 have yet to be recovered.
U.S.-based law firms, however, are planning to obtain considerably more compensation from Costa. A mass tort was filed Feb. 14 on behalf of 39 individual plaintiffs, amended from an original six plaintiffs in a Jan. 27 filing, in the Florida Circuit Court (11th Judicial Circuit) in Miami-Dade County.
A mass tort typically involves numerous plaintiffs suing one or several defendants based on harm caused by a single common product.
Attorney Mitchell Proner of the law firm Proner & Proner, said in a statement on the firm’s website that the original six plaintiffs sought up to $10 million in compensatory damages as well as $450 million in punitive damages.
The amount of punitive damages being sought will not change, but the attorneys will seek additional compensatory damages for the 33 plaintiffs added to the case, said Proner.
Other law firms working with Proner are Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik & Associates and Colson Hicks Eidson, along with the Italian consumer advocacy firm Codacons.
A statement from the firms said, “The corporations responsible, Carnival Corporation, Costa Cruise Lines Inc. and Costa Crociere SPA, are all registered in the state of Florida and face state law claims for maritime negligence, gross negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent retention (by the cruise line of [Concordia] captain Francesco Schettino).”
The amended complaint also set forth new “causes of action,” including fraudulent misrepresentation and fraudulent inducement.
Follow Donna Tunney on Twitter @dttravelweekly.