An important decision handed down in the US Court of Appeals reversing the dismissal of a lawsuit brought against the Wyndham Nassau Resort and Crystal Palace Casino by a tourist from Mississippi has important consequences for businesses in the Bahamas that have ties to the US, Robert Parks of the Miami law firm of Haggard Parks Haggard & Lewis told The Tribune.
Mr Parks is the attorney for Howard Stubbs, a resident of Mississippi, who while staying at the resort was seriously injured after jumping into an empty pool.
“Those businesses in the Bahamas, particularly those in the service trade who have a presence in the United States, need to be aware that people who get hurt or injured, particularly foreigners, at their places of business, if they have a presence here in Florida there is a good chance that they will be brought into court here,” Mr Parks said.
He said that the Bahamas has had a history of hotels taking the position that people who get injured on their premises through what may be their fault can’t sue them anywhere but in the Bahamas.
“This is another example of where that is certainly not the case. I have been involved in these cases for the past 15 years and we have been able to win more than we have lost in terms of making sure that these lawsuits were here,” Mr Parks said.
The original lawsuit, which was filed in March 2004, was dismissed from the District Court on the grounds that the resort and its parent company did not have sufficient contacts with the state of Florida to assert personal jurisdiction over them.
However the appeal court reversed the decision on the basis that it found enough evidence that the resort and its owner did indeed have substantial activity and business transactions within the state of Florida.
Since the lawsuit was filed in 2004, however, the ownership of the Wyndham has changed hands from Phil Ruffin’s Ruffin Company to the Baha Mar Deelopment Company.
While he admitted that this change may make his litigation a bit more cumbersome, Mr Parks said that this will not hinder the case.
Whoever was responsible at the time and who was insured at the time will be the parties who are responsible. The people who may have bought it since then will have no involvement in it,” Mr Parks said.
Vice President of Administration and External Affairs at Baha Mar, Robert Sands, also told The Tribune that the liabilities that occurred prior to Baha Mar’s acquisition remain the liabilities of the Ruffin Group.
“Legally the liabilities, which have been disclosed remain the liability issues of the Ruffin Group,” he said.
On March 10 2003 Mr Stubbs was a guest at the Wyndham when he dove into what his attorney described as “an improperly marked and improperly lighted pool and as a result of the negligence of the hotel and its owners was seriously injured.”
The next day he was airlifted from Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida where he spent 25 days in treatment for his injuries, including time in the intensive care for a collapsed lung and pneumonia before returning to Mississippi for further treatment.
Mr Parks said that as a result of his injuries, Stubbs was paralysed from the neck down.
“He will never be back to normal. He is a quadriplegic and he is working hard to get movement back in some of his extremities. He is a model patient from what the doctors say in terms of the effort of trying to make his life meaningful,” the attorney said:
By RUPERT MISSICK Jr Chief Reporter
