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The Norway suffered a boiler explosion in 2003.
The figure comes in addition to the $13.8m NCL had previously asserted as paid towards full restitution, after the company reached a guilty plea with US prosecutors.
Judge Federico Moreno of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida has also ordered NCL to pay the Public Health Trust of Miami-Dade County and First Rescue $181,000 to cover emergency and fire response.
Miami-Dade First Rescue has won another $162,000 towards the unreimbursed portion of medical services provided to victims at a city hospital.
“These claimants are victims within the meaning of the restitution statute,” Judge Moreno wrote in his order. “When a fire is caused by criminal conduct, those entities responding to it should be compensated.”
Among crewmember victims, 11 claimants have won individual awards ranging from $372,000-$868,000. Judge Moreno awarded these sums by way of lost wages. He said because this was a criminal case, his court would not reduce these awards on a “present value” basis as would be the case in a civil settlement.
NCL’s plea agreement in April was on a criminal count, and the line was fined $1m.
NCL had presented the $13.8m figure as the total of claims amicably settled in the years following the explosion. However, the final amount of restitution was left undecided, subject to restitution hearings held by Judge Moreno.
Norway victims emerged again during hearings in June and July, demanding potential awards that ran into tens of millions of dollars after accusing NCL of “placing corporate profits ahead of safety”.
The fire and medical claims were tagged on, on grounds that these aid services “arose directly from NCL’s criminal conduct and should be borne by NCL, not the taxpayers”.
Victims had also hinted that NCL’s insurers might be entitled for reimbursement for any medical bills, if any, paid by them, and for any part of the victim settlements that may have been defrayed out of charter loss insurance or other insurance reimbursements received by NCL.
Judge Moreno’s ruling is silent on this aspect of the case.
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