A federal jury in Miami ordered Carnival Corporation to pay $300,000 to passenger Diana Sanders on April 10, 2026, after finding the cruise line 60 percent liable for over-serving her tequila aboard the Carnival Radiance in January 2024.
The verdict, covered by the Miami Herald, UPI, Fortune and NBC's Today.com among others, closed out roughly 17 months of litigation that Carnival had tried repeatedly to get dismissed. Carnival has said it disagrees with the result and intends to seek a new trial and an appeal, meaning the case is not resolved despite headlines describing it as settled.
What happened aboard the Carnival Radiance
Sanders, a 45-year-old nurse from Vacaville, California, was a passenger on the Carnival Radiance on January 5, 2024. According to court documents, she was served at least 14 shots of tequila over a span of approximately eight hours and 39 minutes, specifically between 2:58 p.m. and 11:37 p.m. Reporting citing the complaint identified six separate onboard bars where the shots were poured, including the BlueIguana Tequila Bar, the adults-only Serenity Bar and the RedFrog Rum Bar, along with the Radiance Casino Bar, the Winners Luck Bar and the Bar at Sportsquare. Sanders said she blacked out and woke up at the bottom of a crew-only stairwell, suffering a concussion, a possible traumatic brain injury and other injuries.
How the jury split the fault and set the damages
The trial began April 6, 2026, and ran four days before a six-person jury returned its verdict in federal court for the Southern District of Florida. The jury assigned 60 percent of the fault to Carnival and 40 percent to Sanders, then set damages at $300,000, a figure that exceeded the $250,000 her attorneys had requested at trial. The verdict was entered on the court docket on April 13, 2026. During the proceedings, Carnival's lawyers argued the case should be dismissed because Sanders could not identify the specific bartenders or bars responsible and that there was no allegation she had been stumbling, sleeping at a bar or slurring her words. Sanders' legal team countered that Carnival deliberately placed alcohol service stations in what they called every nook and cranny of the ship to maximize revenue, and that crew had a duty to stop serving a visibly intoxicated guest.
What Carnival and Sanders' attorney said
A Carnival Corporation spokesperson said the company respectfully disagrees with the verdict and believes there are grounds for a new trial and appeal, which it will pursue. The spokesperson did not say whether Carnival would change its onboard alcohol policies or drink packages in response to the outcome. Sanders' attorney, Spencer Aronfeld, said taking on a corporate giant like Carnival was a massive undertaking and that the case highlights the dangers of all-inclusive drink packages, which he said encourage excessive consumption and pressure underpaid servers to prioritize tips over safety. The case arrives alongside a separate, unresolved wrongful death suit against Royal Caribbean over a passenger allegedly served 33 or more drinks before his death, and another Royal Caribbean suit filed by the family of a 66-year-old woman who went overboard in October 2024 after crew served her seven drinks in just over six hours; her body was never recovered.
What this means
The headline framing this as a settlement is not supported by the record: this was a contested jury verdict, and Carnival has said it will appeal, so no negotiated resolution or payout has been confirmed. For an industry that depends on tequila as a volume pour in all-inclusive drink packages, the case is a reminder that liability for how a spirit is served, not just what is in the bottle, is now drawing courtroom scrutiny.