NEED TO KNOW
- A former P&O Cruises executive is now suing the company, claiming an injury on board one of the ships left her needing a wheelchair and unable to work
- Former human resources executive Kerry Middleton, 52, is suing the cruise line for $13 million, per local outlets
- In court, according to reports, counsel for P&O and its parent company Carnival PLC said they recorded secret surveillance footage of Middleton showing “completely normal mobility” inside her home
A former cruise executive is reportedly suing her former employer after she allegedly sustained an injury on board one of the company’s ships.
Kerry Middleton, 52, claims she cracked a bone in her neck after a slip in the bathroom on P&O Cruises’ MV Britannia cruise ship, according to British newspapers The Times and Independent. The incident allegedly occurred while Middleton, a human resources executive, was on board for a management meeting while in port in Cadiz, Spain, in 2019.
Middleton allegedly sustained a fracture to her spinous process, a part of the bone in her neck. Doctors reportedly told her it should resolve in six months. However, she was later allegedly diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND), a condition that impacts the function of the brain.
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Her condition allegedly left her needing a wheelchair and prevented her from ever working again. Now, she is suing the cruise line for just over $13 million, according to the local outlets.
However, the defendant — P&O Cruises and its parent company, Carnival PLC. — argue Middleton is not as disabled as she claims.
The Times and Independent report that Carnival said they secretly filmed her through her kitchen window on New Year’s Eve in 2024, walking with “completely normal mobility and looking pretty chirpy on top of it.”
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“We see her moving freely,” James Todd, Carnival’s counsel, said in court, per The Times. “She is cheerful and happy with her family. Towards the end of the clip, we see her walking around the kitchen island, doing so freely, without any sign of disability.”
Eliot Woolf, who represents Middleton, responded by saying experts anticipated “some improvement once she has undergone treatment in a multi-disciplinary unit, but not sufficient for her to return to any form of employment.”
After contacting Woolf, he did not offer a statement to PEOPLE.
A judgment has already been entered in favor of Middleton, placing the liability of the fall on P&O Cruises. However, the company is now fighting the amount she is requesting in damages.
According to the Independent, the defense’s main objection is that Middleton’s FND diagnosis allegedly had nothing to do with her fall. Instead, they argue it had to do with her “below standard” work performance grading, something they would not be liable to pay damages for, Todd told the judges.
“We say that the triggering episode for this condition of FND was the claimant learning from her manager that she had received a 2.5 performance grading,” he said, per the Independent.
Todd did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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The judge ultimately granted permission for the surveillance footage to be included in evidence. Given the new footage, a new trial is set to take place at a later date, yet to be announced.
P&O Cruises, and its parent company Carnival PLC, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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