By Joyce Hanson

Law360 (May 28, 2020, 6:18 PM EDT) -- Celebrity Cruises has asked a Florida federal court to toss a proposed class action alleging it failed to adequately protect thousands of workers on its ships during the current COVID-19 pandemic, saying the plaintiff's attorneys already failed to win a similar suit.

Two months ago, the attorneys lost their appeal before the Eleventh Circuit in Thomas Heinen et al. v. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. , a case involving ticketholders of a cruise that was canceled because of Hurricane Harvey, according to Celebrity Cruises. In its Wednesday motion to dismiss the proposed class action brought by Alexandra Nedeltcheva, a crew member who contracted the coronavirus while working on a ship off the coast of France, Celebrity said her case is as flawed as Heinen's.

The ticketholders claimed that Royal Caribbean was negligent because it didn't cancel the scheduled cruise out of Galveston, Texas, quickly enough and forced them to endure the storm in the coastal port city, according to Celebrity Cruises.

But, the cruise line said, the Eleventh Circuit found in March that no ticketholders in the Harvey suit identified any specific personal injuries they might have suffered and instead merely "ticked off a laundry list of injuries at the end of their complaint, without specifying who suffered what."

"The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of the amended complaint for failure to state a claim, holding that, 'although each appellant alleged that Royal Caribbean's delay caused them physical and emotional damage, that threadbare allegation does not suffice without factual allegations in support,'" according to Celebrity Cruises, a Royal Caribbean Cruises subsidiary.

Likewise, the cruise line said, the same "laundry list of every injury that could conceivably befall a human being," which didn't convince the Eleventh Circuit, has resurfaced in the Nedeltcheva action.

Nedeltcheva, who works on the new Celebrity Apex that was set to begin sailing the Mediterranean this summer, said in her April 14 complaint that Celebrity Cruises failed to heed warnings about how quickly the coronavirus could spread on cruise ships, and when measures were taken to protect passengers' safety, crew members were still ordered to continue operations as normal.

Even after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's March 14 no-sail order for all cruise ships, Celebrity continued to force crew members on the Apex, which is docked at a port in France, to participate in drills and had a crew party for workers with a large communal buffet line, according to the complaint. Celebrity also allowed independent contractors to freely travel on and off the ship, potentially introducing and spreading the virus, according to the suit.

As of April 6, 350 of the Apex's crew members, including Nedeltcheva, had tested positive for the coronavirus, and eight had to be hospitalized in France, according to the suit.

"Despite having notice that COVID-19 was and/or likely was present aboard the vessels, Celebrity glaringly failed to follow even the most basic safety precautions after acquiring such notice, such as timely quarantining crewmembers stationed aboard the vessels, timely providing crewmembers stationed aboard the vessels masks and/or timely requiring them to observe social distancing measures aboard the vessels," Nedeltcheva said.

Nedeltcheva also pointed to the Celebrity Eclipse, which sailed from Argentina on March 1 for what was supposed to be a 14-night cruise in Argentina and Chile. The ship eventually docked in San Diego on March 30 after being denied permission to dock in Chile because of suspected COVID-19 cases on board. For the second half of the month-long voyage, passengers were ordered to self-isolate in their cabins, but crew members had to continue operations as normal and the company did not take any specific safety measures, according to the suit.

At least one crew member on the Eclipse tested positive for the coronavirus, and one passenger later died of the disease after leaving the ship.

Nedeltcheva is alleging negligence under the Jones Act and failure to provide prompt, proper and adequate medical care, among other claims. She estimates that there are at least 10,000 members of the proposed class of Celebrity workers.

An attorney for Nedeltcheva, Michael A. Winkleman of Lipcon Margulies Alsina & Winkleman PA, told Law360 in an email Thursday, "We think the motion to dismiss is devoid of merit and we look forward to getting to the merits of the case."

Representatives for Celebrity did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Nedeltcheva is represented by Jason R. Margulies, Michael A. Winkleman, Jacqueline Garcell and L. Alex Perez of Lipcon Margulies Alsina & Winkleman PA.

Celebrity is represented by Sanford L. Bohrer, Alex M. Gonzalez and Scott D. Ponce of Holland & Knight LLP and by Jerry D. Hamilton, Evan S. Gutwein and Annalisa Gutierrez of Hamilton Miller & Birthisel LLP.

The case is Nedeltcheva et al. v. Celebrity Cruises Inc., case number 1:20-cv-21569, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

--Additional reporting by Carolina Bolado. Editing by Alyssa Miller.

For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.