White Island, shortly after the December 2019 eruption. Photo / White Island Flights, File
White Island, shortly after the December 2019 eruption. Photo / White Island Flights, File
Victims of the White Island/Whakaari volcano eruption have been rebuked in court for allegedly trying to delay a lawsuit brought against them by the cruise line that took them to the island.
An application filed in the case by American couple Paul and Ivy Reed, who were injured in the blast, was described as a "pointless charade" in the Australian Federal Court on Wednesday.
The volcano eruption on New Zealand's Whakaari/White Island on December 9, 2019, killed 22 people and left 25 others injured.
Rick Reed and wife Ivy Kohn Reed on Whakaari White Island 15 minutes before the volcanic eruption on December 9 2019. Photo / Supplied, File
The majority of the 47 people on the island at the time of the eruption, including the Reeds, were there as part of the Ovation of the Seas cruise.
The couple has filed a lawsuit against cruise line Royal Caribbean in Florida, saying they are owed damages after the eruption left them with severe burns, scarring, reduced use of their limbs and extremities and ongoing emotional distress.
The company is also being sued in Florida by Australian mother and daughter Marie and Stephanie Browitt. The pair lost half their family — father Paul and daughter Krystal — and Stephanie was badly burned.
Krystal Browitt, Paul Browitt and Stephanie Browitt at the crater on Whakaari /White Island. Stephanie survived but was badly burned. Photo / Supplied, File
In response to the lawsuits, Royal Caribbean has taken action against both families in the Australian Federal Court, arguing the ticket terms and conditions meant they could only sue in NSW.
The cruise line is seeking orders restraining the families from continuing with the Florida lawsuits.
In a case management hearing on Wednesday, lawyer Niksa Stanisic said he had been instructed to file an application arguing the Reeds had not been properly served with court documents.
Justice Angus Stewart asked how the application to set aside service was not "a bald-faced attempt at delaying the current proceedings".
Stanisic said the primary concern was preventing the couple from being adversely affected in the Florida proceedings by service issues in the Australian proceedings.
Tourists being evacuated from White Island/Whakaari following the eruption. Photo / Michael Schade, File
But asked by Justice Stewart exactly how that would occur, Stanisic said he could not give an answer.
Justice Stewart said he was only offering his first impression on the application, but "it does seem to me that this is just a pointless charade".
Last month, the judge ruled the cruise company could serve documents on the Reeds by emailing them to their US lawyers, despite the American lawyers saying they did not have the authority to accept them.
This occurred after process server Vance Warren swore an affidavit about his "many attempts" at handing over the documents.
Those efforts included visits on February 8, 9, 10 and 12 to the Reeds' home when they appeared to be there, but no one answered the knock at the door, the judge said.
"Mr Warren formed the view that the respondents were attempting to avoid service.
"There is no conceivable – at least to me – reasonable explanation why the respondents would not give their US lawyers authority to accept service of process on their behalf, or why they would not answer the knock of the process server.
"The most obvious explanation that occurs to me is that the respondents are seeking to avoid service so as to delay the proceeding in this court and to thereby potentially hinder its prospects."
