Cruise ship captain
held pair captive,
suit claimsNorwegian Lines says the two
were asked to disembark on Maui
A New York woman has filed a lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Lines Ltd., alleging the captain held her and her husband captive in a locked room for several hours because she works for a law firm that was suing the cruise line.
Beth Lurie filed suit in federal court in New York on Monday, alleging that on Feb. 28, the fifth day of an eight-day luxury cruise of the Hawaiian islands, the captain "publicly and forcibly prevented" her from going ashore at Maui.
The couple alleges they were detained in a room and then forced to leave the Norwegian Star at Maui.
The Luries, who paid $1,492 for the cruise, are seeking about $1.5 million in damages for false imprisonment and breach of contract.
"NCL denies the ridiculous allegations in this lawsuit,'' said Susan Robison, a spokesperson for Norwegian, which is a unit of Star Cruises Ltd. of Hong Kong and based in Miami.
Robison said the pair were "class-action lawyers who went undercover to solicit crew members to join a meritless lawsuit."
Neither the Luries nor their attorney, Barry Fertel, could be reached yesterday for comment.
It could not be determined if either Lurie or her husband, Mark, are lawyers working for Jenkins & Gilchrist, a New York law firm that is representing cruise line employees in a pending class-action suit.
That class-action suit alleges Norwegian failed to pay employees full wages.
The Lurie lawsuit claims that Lurie and her husband "were held in a locked room from which they were denied exit for several hours."
Lurie alleges the captain said the reason for their detention was that she works for Jenkins & Gilchrist.
Robison said the Luries were never detained during the cruise.
"Several employees complained to the captain and senior management that these undercover lawyers were interfering with the employees doing their jobs and they felt they were being harassed into joining the suit," Robison said.
She added, "The captain and senior officers asked them to leave at the next port of call," which was Maui.
Fertel, the attorney for the Luries, told Bloomberg News that after the cruise began, Lurie's employer asked her to question "ship employees about their knowledge" of the class-action suit.
Fertel said the captain, upon learning of this, first detained the couple and then, with three days left to the cruise, forced them to disembark.