Michele Markham claims in court that Carnival Cruise Lines left her drunken husband to die after he fell overboard during the cruise vacation, and that later on the same cruise company falsely claimed that he committed suicide. The grieving widow claimed that it took the ship’s rescue team more than 20 minutes to respond once they were aware of the situation. To make matters worse, the body of her husband Clint was never recovered, thus leaving her without closure and the opportunity of a proper burial.
Michelle says that this hard-working man finally had a moment to relax on their vacation and took advantage of the unlimited alcohol which was provided on their excursion. After a night of fun, the men went to the upper deck and sat on the railing. Witnesses are divided between those that say that he fell and those who say that he jumped, but all of them agree to one, Clint was unconscious before he even hit the water.
This horrible event occurred September 2011, when the couple decided to celebrate Clint’s 40th birthday on one of the Carnival Cruise ships. The widow tells the media that Carnival taunted her husband to drink so much by inviting “daredevils at heart” and offered unlimited alcoholic drinks. For those who work on cruise ships as bartender may be familiar that every ship has a policy that once the bartender notices that a passenger is very drunk not to continue to poor drinks and cut him or her off. In this case that did not seem to happen. Clint was offered drinks even though he was noticeably drunk. His wife asked him to stop, lay down, shower, and get ready for the dinner, but he fell into the fun and party mood that the cruise ship experience provides and decided to continue partying and drinking. According to his wife and her lawyer, Clint was neither depressed, nor suicidal; had no history of the previous mentioned, nor attempts. He had much to look forward in his life, to include the eventful moments in his son’s life. His life was going pretty well, especially since he started a new job which paid six figures and he and his wife were in the process of refinancing their house. This person does not fall into the category of a suicidal person, but a person who had everything to live for.
The incident occurred in broad daylight, but still the body was never recovered. Carnival presented to the media that Clint committed suicide even though this was not concluded at the time, thus putting the family through even more grief then just mourning the loss of a loved. The mother of the victim was approached by the media with questions of what let him to do such a thing, devastating this grieving mother to have to continuously explain to them that he had no reason and would never take his own life. According to his mother, he was raised and displayed behavior of a man who takes care of his family and responsibilities and there is a long history which proves her statement to include the new job which was paying very well. His wife is seeking punitive damages for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She is suing on her own behalf, her daughter Chanel, as well as the mother, Joyce and they will be represented by Paul Hoffman of Fort Lauderdale.
