Sponsors (4)
Official title: To provide authorization for nonpecuniary damages in an action resulting from a cruise ship voyage occurring on the high seas.
Introduced April 17, 2025 by Donald J. Bacon · Last progress April 17, 2025
The bill clarifies who counts as a cruise ship and expands recoverable nonpecuniary damages for victims' families, improving legal clarity and compensation but increasing liability exposure for operators and leaving gaps for incidents on government-operated vessels.
Families of passengers injured or killed on covered cruise ships can recover defined nonpecuniary damages (loss of care, comfort, and companionship), making compensation categories explicit in lawsuits.
Passengers will have clearer legal definitions for what qualifies as a 'cruise ship,' reducing ambiguity in litigation and consumer protection disputes.
Cruise operators, including smaller companies, may face increased litigation exposure or clearer liability standards, which could raise operating costs and lead to higher ticket prices for passengers.
Passengers and families involved with state or federal government-operated vessels remain excluded from these definitions/remedies and may continue to have different or fewer recovery options.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds statutory definitions of “cruise ship” and “nonpecuniary damages” to 46 U.S.C. §30307 and updates related text and table entry.
Amends federal maritime law to add clear definitions for “cruise ship” and “nonpecuniary damages,” updates related text in the statute, and revises the Title 46 table entry. The change narrows which passenger vessels count as cruise ships (250+ passengers, individual sleeping berths, embarks/disembarks in the U.S., and not on coastwise voyages) and defines nonpecuniary damages as loss of care, comfort, and companionship, which affects how liability and damages are interpreted in covered cases.