A retired couple whose dream cruise was ruined by a noisy cabin and bad weather have had their £22,000 damages nearly halved by the Court of Appeal.
In Milner and Milner v Carnival plc (trading as Cunard) [2010] EWCA Civ 389, Lord Justice Ward said that damages in holiday cases must be consistent with awards in personal injury.
The couple paid £60,000 for a three-month cruise with Cunard, and Cynthia Milner had purchased a wardrobe of 21 formal gowns at a cost of £4,300 for the trip. After experiencing discomfort and sickness, they left the cruise after one month.
They were awarded £2,500 each in the county court for the diminution in value of their cruise, plus £7,500 each for their distress and disappointment, and Cynthia Milner was awarded £2,000 for her wasted expenditure on formal gowns.
Reducing the damages, however, Ward LJ said: “Physical inconvenience and discomfort is necessarily ephemeral...one is not disabled, the psyche is not injured and one gets on with life.
“There is no medical evidence here to indicate any recognisable psychiatric injury: distress falls into a different and less serious category and does not equate with bereavement.”
