Posted on: Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Cruise lines say ADA not applicable

By Pete Yost
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The cruise ship industry tried yesterday to fend off efforts to make its vessels more accessible to disabled vacationers, telling the Supreme Court that imposing requirements would hurt the billion-dollar tourist business.

The real question is discrimination, countered a lawyer for three disabled American passengers, two of them in wheelchairs, who sued Norwegian Cruise Line. They want the Americans with Disabilities Act extended to foreign vessels that call on U.S. ports.

"Millions of people spending billions of dollars of commerce are affected by this statute," and it should apply to foreign-flagged vessels that stop at U.S. cities, said Thomas Goldstein, the lawyer for the disabled passengers.

They say they paid premiums to Norwegian Cruise Line for handicapped-accessible cabins and the assistance of crew but the cruise line failed to configure restaurants, swimming pools, elevators and public bathrooms.

The case has huge implications for cruise lines, which could be forced to pay for retrofitting ships. The worldwide industry estimates two-thirds of its passengers are Americans.

Goldstein said the disabilities act doesn't apply to the crews of foreign-flagged vessels that stop in U.S. ports, "but when Americans are involved" circumstances change.

In Hawai'i, Robert Kritzman, executive vice president and managing director of Hawai'i operations for NCL America, said the U.S.-flagged Pride of Aloha is ADA compliant, as will be the two new U.S.-flagged ships set to arrive here this summer and next year. Accommodations include cabins that are wheelchair accessible, indicating-light systems for the hearing impaired and information available in braille, he said. The new ships also will have electrical hoists for pools and jacuzzis.

The justices seemed concerned about stepping into an intersection of the law of the sea, U.S. rules and the laws of foreign countries.

"You are saying the U.S. rules the world," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told Goldstein.

The passengers drew support for their position from the Justice Department, which says the disabilities act applies.

However, David Frederick, a lawyer for the cruise line, said the civil-rights laws of the country where a ship is registered should apply.

Much of the industry registers its ships away from home countries in places such as The Bahamas, Liberia, Honduras, Panama and Cyprus, which promote the practice by pointing to their business-friendly regulatory outlooks.