Twenty-two people died – including 20 tourists and two local tour guides – when the volcanic island off the Bay of Plenty coast erupted on December 9, 2019. Video / Geoff Mackley, youtube.com/@geoffmackley
* Almost five years on from the White Island eruption, cruise company Royal Caribbean has settled a civil claim outside court.
* 22 people died and another 25 were injured in the tragedy
* Survivor Stephanie Browitt - who lost her father and sister and was seriously burned herself - speaks of her relief.
One of the world’s biggest cruise ship companies has settled another multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit taken by a family whose lives were shattered in the Whakaari/White Island tragedy.
Twenty-two people died – including 20 tourists and two local tour guides – when the volcanic island off the Bay of Plenty coast erupted on December 9, 2019.
Almost five years on, the tragedy is the subject of legal action in the US, with various civil claims being taken against the Royal Caribbean cruise ship company.
The tourists who were killed or injured had been passengers aboard a Royal Caribbean ship, with the lawsuits claiming the company didn’t properly warn them of the dangers they could face on White Island.
One of those suits was taken by the Browitt family; 55-year-old Paul Browitt died in hospital from injuries he suffered and his 21-year-old daughter Krystal’s body was recovered from the island, while his oldest daughter Stephanie suffered severe, life-changing burns.
Peter Gordon of Melbourne’s Gordon Legal said it was pleasing a confidential settlement had been reached.
“Over the past four years, Stephanie has shown not just physical durability but an incredible mental fortitude to stay the course and continue this fight,” he said in a statement to the Herald.
“The Browitt family are extremely grateful to everyone who supported them during this period, particularly those who were prepared to fly to Miami to give evidence.
“Stephanie and Marie’s lives will never be the same, but we hope the settlement allows them to focus on the future.”
Royal Caribbean did not respond to a request for comment from the Herald.
The Browitts began their legal fight against Royal Caribbean about a year after the tragedy.
Court information states the case covered the area of alleged “negligence” on the part of Royal Caribbean. The homepage for the trial now marks the case as “settled”.
The Browitts’ legal team had flown numerous witnesses from Australia to Florida to testify in the scheduled case.
Tourists are ferried off Whakaari/White Island after the eruption. Photo / Michael Schade
That included volcanic experts, and members of the medical team who cared for Stephanie – who suffered burns to about 70% of her body, lost parts of her fingers in the eruption, and was in a coma for two weeks following the tragedy..
Stephanie Browitt and her mother and Paul’s widow Marie – who had stayed on the ship instead of making the fateful island excursion – were both interviewed after the settlement by Australian current affairs show 60 Minutes.
The show has closely followed Stephanie’s recovery: in 2022 they filmed the moment she was finally allowed to remove the compression mask she had worn after a series of skin grafts on her face.
Families of victims of the Whakaari/White Island volcanic eruption in 2019 returned to the island as a memorial to the dead was revealed. Photo / Instagram
Stephanie said she welcomed the confidential out-of-court settlement.
“It has been exhausting, it has been scary, and we are just very relieved that it has finally come to an end,” she told 60 Minutes last weekend.
“We were willing to do whatever we needed to do to fight for dad and Krystal and for ourselves.”
Marie also talked about her “relief” that the legal battle was over.
She said it had previously felt as though there’d been a “hold that we were tied into” in the years after the tragedy.
“We are just grateful that that has been broken and we don’t feel trapped now,” Marie told 60 Minutes.
“We can let that go and move forward without having to worry about the fight, that constant fight, that excruciating fight that we’ve been going through.”
The case taken by the Browitts is at least the second which Royal Caribbean has settled outside court.
Earlier, the cruise liner settled with American couple Matt and Lauren Urey – honeymooners who were badly burned and almost lost their lives – for an undisclosed financial sum.
In March, the Herald revealed other multimillion-dollar legal suits taken by several families affected by the Whaakari/White Island tragedy could be settled outside court.
Stacks Goudkamp associate Julia Camus said as well as taking the lives of 22 people, the tragedy would also leave life-lasting physical and mental scars.
“No amount of money can ever really and truly compensate these victims,” Camus said.
“No matter what you do ... it doesn’t ... bring them back to the health they had before, the way that things were before this happened.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience, including extensively covering the aftermath of the White Island tragedy.
Sign up to the Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
