Carnival cruise ship briefly seized in Galveston

  

GALVESTON, TX -- U.S. marshals briefly seized a cruise ship in coastal Texas on Saturday under a judge's order in a $10 million lawsuit filed on behalf of a woman who died in the Italian cruise ship disaster.

The Carnival Triumph was seized for several hours at its port in Galveston, where it was scheduled to leave with 2,700 passengers. Both sides said they reached a confidential deal late Saturday afternoon that released the ship for its five-day cruise to Mexico.

A Texas judge had ordered the seizure to secure the plaintiff's claims against Carnival Corp., the Miami-based parent company of the Italian cruise line whose ship hit a reef and sank off an Italian island in January. The lawsuit was filed Thursday on behalf of a German woman who died in the wreck, which killed 32 people.

Plaintiff attorney John Eaves Jr. said he didn't file the lawsuit to inconvenience passengers of the Carnival Triumph, but rather to emphasize to Carnival the need for improved safety. He said terms of Saturday's agreement were confidential.

Carnival released a statement noting that the lawsuit was related to a European-based sister cruise line. The company said "the matter involving the Carnival Triumph" was resolved and the ship departed early Saturday evening.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Alfredo Perez confirmed that marshals seized the vessel and held it through Saturday afternoon. Passengers were allowed on and off the ship, which wasn't allowed to leave its port while the deal was negotiated.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the estate of Siglinde Stumpf, claims that Carnival shared responsibility for Stumpf's death for not preparing and maintaining proper safety programs for all vessels under its control, including the ill-fated Costa Concordia.

The Italian captain of the Costa Concordia when it sank, Francesco Schettino, is under investigation for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship during the evacuation. Schettino has denied wrongdoing and claimed that the reef wasn't marked on charts.

Eaves argued that the company's training for captains and crew members is inadequate. He said a major aim of the lawsuit was to persuade Carnival to improve safety standards and to join in a campaign to update maritime law, which he said has some good elements but "we want to bring it into the modern age."

A Carnival spokesperson told ABC13 Eyewitness News that the Carnival Triumph departed at 5:30pm Saturday. The ship will operate its normal itinerary with stops in Progreso and Cozumel, Mexico, officials said. While the matter was pending earlier today, guests were allowed to board the ship as normal.

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