Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously reinstated the jury's verdict in a case against Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines in a case argued by CCL's Robert S. Peck only one week ago. 

      Edgardo Lebron suffered a triple break of his ankle during a vacation cruise when the ship offered ice skating sessions on board the ship. Lebron was given ice skates with broken laces, while the ice in the rink was poorly maintained after it had been last resurfaced two hours earlier. A jury had ruled in Lebron's favor on both negligence theories: defective laces and rough ice, even though the complaint pleaded those causes of action in the alternative. 

       Nonetheless, the district court judge took the verdict away, ruling that Lebron had to prove both forms of negligence in combination and that insufficient evidence supported the jury's determination that the cruise ship had notice of the gouges and problems with the ice. 

       In seemingly record time, the appeals court found that the judge erred in requiring both causes of action be proven. Still, it held both were sufficiently proven so that a reasonable jury would have found the cruise line negligent on either claim.