On February 3, 2009, Mr. Larry Yoder entered the crosswalk at the intersection of North Ocean Boulevard and NE 30th Street when he was suddenly struck by a Ford Expedition driven by Ms. Sherryl Kamper. Mr. Yoder suffered a skull facture, a fibula fraction, and multiple spinal fractures.  He developed bilateral hip pain and an abnormal gait.  Mase Lara Eversole secured [...]

Mase & Lara obtained a significant defense verdict in June 2007, in a highly publicized case brought by more than 400 individual plaintiffs for damages alleged to have been caused by NCL negligently navigating the M/V Norwegian Dawn into a storm and freak wave from Miami to New York in 2005. Plaintiffs claimed that NCL [...]

Mase & Lara successfully opposed Plaintiffs’ motion to certify a class action allegedly involving over 2,000 passengers who traveled aboard the M/V Norwegian Dawn when it encountered a severe storm en route to New York. In a 20 page opinion issued on August 31, 2006, Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida [...]

A class action lawsuit filed by Cruise Ship Passenger Plaintiffs Claiming Damages under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act filed in the Southern District of Florida was dismissed. Marshall Order

In the first, Carnival v. Middleton, 941 So.2d 421 (Fla. Third DCA 2006) Carnival Cruise Lines appealed a non-final order reinstating a negligence cause of action against Carnival for injuries sustained by a passenger.  Based on a forum selection clause in the passenger’s ticket, which provided for the resolution of any dispute to be litigated [...]

In December, 2006, Mase & Lara won a highly contested case in which a former crewmember sued his cruise line employer following a slip and fall while he was working as a waiter aboard ship. He claimed that he had suffered a neurological injury which caused osteoporosis to develop in his left leg. He claimed [...]

On September 9, 2005, Judge Jose E. Martinez of the Southern District of Florida granted a motion to dismiss based on a forum selection clause in the passenger’s ticket, which provided for the resolution of any dispute to be litigated in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. The [...]

On August 23, 2005, Judge Patricia Seitz of the Southern District of Florida agreed with NCL that the plaintiffs had failed to raise facts in support of their claims under general maritime law, and granted summary judgment in a case where the plaintiffs alleged false imprisonment and breach of contract when they were questioned by [...]

On June 10, 2005, Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida granted a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment, which was filed by M&L on behalf of Carnival Cruise Lines.  The issue was whether a plaintiff’s suit was untimely, per the one-year limitation provision in Carnival’s passenger ticket contract, where the [...]

Mase & Lara, P.A. successfully represented Norwegian Cruise Line in a landmark case arising out of the highly publicized S/S Norway boiler explosion in Bautista v. NCL, 396 F.3d 1289 (11th Cir. 2005).  Bautista Opinion 11th Cir 2005 A group of Filipino crewmembers and their heirs commenced suit under the Jones Act and general maritime [...]