Paralegal on cruise not
undercover, lawyer says
The attorney for a New York woman suing Norwegian Cruise Lines Ltd. said yesterday his client was not working "as an undercover lawyer trying to solicit the crew" when she boarded the Norwegian Star for a tour of the Hawaiian Islands in February. Beth Lurie filed a lawsuit in federal court earlier this week alleging that on the fifth day of an eight-day cruise, the captain of the Norwegian Star detained her and her husband in a locked room before forcing them to leave the cruise on Maui.
The lawsuit alleges the captain detained them because she worked for a New York law firm that is representing cruise line employees in a class-action pay dispute and because she was talking to crew members about the suit.
Earlier this week, Susan Robison, a spokeswoman for Norwegian Cruise, said the Luries were "class-action lawyers who went undercover to solicit crew members to join a meritless lawsuit."
Yesterday, the Luries' attorney, Barry Fertel said neither of the Luries are attorneys and that Beth Lurie is a paralegal for the firm, working in the bankruptcy department.
Fertel said, "I'm surprised the cruise line said they were lawyers because they know (from court documents) that they are not."
Fertel said, "It seems to me the cruise line may be covering up the way they treat their employees, and maybe that's why they threw her off the ship."
According to a letter from the law firm of Jenkens & Gilchrist that was filed in March as part of the pay dispute, Lurie has been employed at the firm for six years as a paralegal in the bankruptcy department.
The Jenkens letter said Lurie has "not worked on the (class action) case and has virtually no knowledge of it. ... Her presence on the ship was solely as a vacationer."
Lurie's suit does say that her firm asked her to question crew members to see if any knew about the case.
Robison said yesterday that "she was on board harassing employees to the point where they complained to senior management. So she was clearly on board for more than a vacation."
The law firm's letter acknowledges that after the cruise began Lurie was asked to speak to crew members about the case and that she spoke to three people but did not "engage in any abusive conduct."
The letter said the law firm wanted to know whether ship management was pressuring crew members to pull out of the class-action suit. The letter said that 63 percent of the crew aboard the Norwegian Star had sent in forms to pull out of the suit, compared with 6 percent of all crew members who work for the entire cruise line.
The letter indicates the law firm suspected the high percentage of Norwegian Star crew pulling out of the case indicated pressure from the ship's management.
The Lurie's lawsuit seeks $1.5 million in damages for false imprisonment and breach of contract.