Susan Morton William Morton v. Joaquin Martins De Oliveira, and Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc.

This admiralty case arises from an alleged rape on board a cruise liner. We must decide whether the Supreme Court has implicitly overruled this circuit’s law that a ship owner is absolutely liable for a crew member’s assault on a passenger.

I

Plaintiffs Susan and William Morton paid to take a cruise in 1989 on the M/V Carni-vale, a ship owned and operated by Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. Crew member Joaquin De Oliveira served as their regular dining room waiter.

One evening, while William Morton was at the ship’s casino, Susan Morton was alone in their cabin when, according to her account, De Oliveira appeared at her door with a bottle of wine and two glasses and said he thought the Mortons would like to sample some.

Susan asked him in and they exchanged pleasantries and each had a glass of wine. According to Susan, she began to feel dizzy. She asked De Oliveira to get her husband, but instead De Oliveira pushed her on the bed and raped her. She did not tell her husband immediately about the attack nor did she report it to authorities aboard the ship.

De Oliveira, who no longer works for Carnival and apparently cannot be located, made a statement to a Carnival security official…