Lawsuit over death of retired Dallas firefighter says cruise line failed to warn of outbreak

Michael Dorety died after contracting COVID-19 on the cruise, and his wife claims they were never warned of the outbreak on board.

Susan and Michael Dorety boarded the Grand Princess cruise ship in February in San Francisco to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.

Weeks later, the retired Dallas firefighter died alone from COVID-19 in a California hospital room after becoming infected on the ship.

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday against Princess Cruise Lines, Susan Dorety said the company did not warn the couple of an outbreak on board the ship that sickened passengers during the previous voyage. The couple, who were in an age group most susceptible to the disease, both contracted COVID-19, the lawsuit said.

“This cruise line company put money ahead of its passengers’ well-being, and it cost Michael Dorety his life,” said Susan’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, in a statement.

Four days after the Doretys boarded, the cruise line warned its previous passengers via email that they had been exposed, the lawsuit said. Some later died from the coronavirus, according to the suit.

But the Crowley couple never knew it. And their captain waited almost two weeks to order all passengers to be quarantined in their cabins, she said in the lawsuit. By then it was too late.

As a feverish Michael Dorety, 68, shivered under his bed covers, greatly weakened by infection, the ship’s crew ignored Susan’s calls for help and would not allow them to leave to seek medical attention, the suit said.

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