A federal judge in Florida has cleared Royal Caribbean of any culpability in the 2019 death of a toddler who fell through an open window of a cruise ship in Puerto Rico after being dropped by her grandfather.
U.S. District Judge Donald Graham on Tuesday dismissed the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of 18-month-old Chloe Wiegand, ruling that the girl’s grandfather — Salvatore “Sam” Anello — was solely responsible for her death.
Alan Wiegand and Kimberly Schultz Wiegand sued the cruise line in December 2019, arguing that the company failed to “adequately mark the open windows” and “install safety prevention devices.”
The matter was set to go to trial next week.
The family plans to appeal the ruling.
“We will be filing the appeal shortly and we will continue to fight and raise awareness about the dangers of unintentional toddler window falls,” Michael Winkelman, the family’s lawyer, told the Daily Mail. “This case was always about Chloe and shining a light on her brief but beautiful life.”
Anello pleaded guilty and was sentenced in February to three years’ probation for criminal negligence. He did not serve any jail time for what he said was a tragic accident on July 7, 2019.
Anello, of Valparaiso, Indiana, was on summer vacation with the Wiegand family and holding the girl in his arms when she fell through an open 11th-floor window aboard the Freedom of the Seas liner.
Anello told authorities that he was color blind and didn’t realize the window was open.
But in January 2020 the cruise line refuted Anello’s story and produced photo evidence that it said showed the man knew the window was open.
Credit: Telemundo Puerto Rico
Credit: Telemundo Puerto Rico
Royal Caribbean’s court filing stated, “The only reasonable conclusion from the video is that Mr. Anello knew the window was open before picking up Chloe. He nonetheless lifted the child over the wooden rail and the open window for a considerable period, recklessly endangering her life. There was no ‘hidden danger’ — Mr. Anello knew the window was open.”
Previously, Winkelman called the photos “misleading.”
In his ruling, however, Judge Graham wrote that “Mr. Anello reached out in front of him and felt no glass in the window opening before extending the Decedent out to the window opening.”
“A reasonable person through ordinary use of his senses would have known of the dangers associated with Mr. Anello’s conduct. Accordingly, the defendant owed no duty to warn of it,” Graham added, and concluding that “The true risk-creating danger here was Mr. Anello lifting a child up to an open window. The Plaintiffs have provided no evidence showing the Defendant was on notice of that danger.”
Three months later, he was charged with negligent homicide, and after more than a year of legal wrangling he pleaded guilty in October 2020.
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