Frank Del Rio’s $8m Lawsuit Against NCLH Dismissed

Frank Del Rio’s lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and four former directors has been dismissed, with a Miami judge throwing out the case with prejudice and entering final judgment in favor of the defendants.

Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz signed the order on September 8, bringing the legal action to an end less than four months after the former NCLH president and CEO filed his lawsuit over an alleged $8 million shortfall in payments under his post-retirement consulting arrangement.

The decision followed an August 26 hearing concerning separate motions to dismiss filed by the corporate defendants, NCLH and NCL (Bahamas) Ltd., as well as individual defendants and former directors Russell Galbut, Harry Curtis, Mary Landry and Stella David.

Rather than detailing the reasoning in the written order, the court presented its findings on the record during the August hearing, with those conclusions incorporated into the order by reference.

According to the order, the case was dismissed because of legal defects that could not be resolved by amending the complaint, meaning any further amendment would be futile. When Del Rio’s representatives were asked during the hearing whether the complaint could be amended to address the threshold defects, they indicated that it could not.

Final judgment was entered in favor of NCLH, NCL (Bahamas) Ltd., Galbut, Curtis, Landry and David, and against Del Rio. The court retained jurisdiction solely to consider any motions concerning entitlement to attorneys’ fees and taxable costs, as well as the amounts involved.

Because the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, Del Rio cannot bring the same claims again before the trial court. He has 30 days to appeal the decision to Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal.