The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian excursion destination and boat operator are both urging dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a US tourist over the loss of both her legs to a vessel’s propeller after staff allegedly told her to jump into the sea to urinate after being “plied with unsafe amounts of alcohol” and drugs.

Pearl Island Investment Management Group, which operates the cruise passenger and tourism destination located off New Providence’s north-east coast, and Sun Cay Ltd are arguing that the south Florida federal court should dismiss the claim by Hannah Smith - which has attracted significant international media attention - on the basis that it has no jurisdiction over them since they have no relevant ties or connections to the state.

Ms Smith, in her amended claim filed on March 11, 2026, is alleging that Pearl Island “bartenders” also supplied and “encouraged” the use of marijuana while she and her friends were visiting on May 12, 2025, after arriving in Nassau on board the Carnival Celebration cruise ship. And she is also alleging that her drink was spiked with a sedative commonly used in sexual assaults - all of which resulted in her becoming intoxicated, and purportedly led to the propeller accident.

She has now been joined by her friend Brooklyn Pitre who, in a separate lawsuit filed with the south Florida court on May 11, 2026, alleged that she was sexually assaulted by an unnamed member of Pearl Island’s staff that very same day. She is also claiming damages for psychological and emotional distress caused by the sight of Ms Smith’s injuries, which left her friend’s “left leg attached only by a sliver of skin” when she was pulled from the propeller and the sea.

However, the south Florida court must now rule on the dismissal bids by both Pearl Island and Sun Cay, as well as that by Carnival. Pearl Island, in its attempt to have Ms Smith’s claim struck out, simply asserted: “This court has no personal jurisdiction over Pearl Island…. Pearl Island is a Bahamian company. All of its operations are conducted in The Bahamas. The May 12, 2025, incident giving rise to plaintiff's claims occurred in Bahamian waters and has no connection to the state of Florida.”

Peter Rebmann, managing partner of Pearl Investment Management Group, which runs the destination, listed in an April 28, 2026, affidavit all the ways in which the company and its operations have no connection to Florida and the US. A similar template was followed by Sun Cay Ltd, which operates the catamaran that transports cruise passengers from the Nassau Cruise Port to Pearl Island.

“This personal injury claim involves a tragic incident in which plaintiff, Hannah Smith, jumped off the back of a catamaran in Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas when that catamaran was docked at a pier in the Port of Nassau on May 12, 2025,” Sun Cay asserted in its dismissal motion.

“The incident occurred at the end of an excursion called the ‘Pearl Island Beach Escape with Lunch’. At the time she participated in this excursion, the plaintiff was a passenger on a cruise on the Carnival Celebration that left from Miami and made a port call at Nassau. Plaintiff and her best friend had signed up for the cruise to celebrate their recent college graduation.

“The issue before the court is whether personal jurisdiction - whether general or specific - exists in this case over Sun Cay. General personal jurisdiction.. does not exist over Sun Cay in Florida given that it only has two connections to the sate of Florida - its purchase of insurance through a Florida-based insurance broker, and its contracts with the Florida-based cruise lines. Nevertheless, having such business relationships alone with the Florida-based cruise lines is insufficient to render Sun Cay subject to general jurisdiction in the state of Florida.”

However, the allegations made by Ms Smith and her friend are not a good look for Bahamian tourism, which remains this country’s largest industry. “Plaintiff’s claims arise from a catastrophic and life-altering incident during a Carnival-marketed shore excursion to Pearl Island/Sun Cay in Nassau, Bahamas,” Ms Smith claims in her lawsuit.

“What began as a celebratory cruise, taken just two weeks after plaintiff graduated summa cum laude from college, quickly devolved when plaintiff and her best friend took part in the promoted ‘Pearl Island Beach Escape with Lunch’ Carnival adventure excursion.

“There, Pearl Island/Sun Cay bartenders plied plaintiff, her best friend and another young woman with copious and unsafe amounts of alcohol, including multiple large mixed drinks and repeated ‘litre pours’ dispensed on a ‘complimentary’ basis from plastic liquor bottles, furnished and encouraged use of marijuana and, as recently discovered, surreptitiously spiked the mixed litre-pour drinks with a drug-facilitated-sexual-assault (“DFSA”) and sedating substance known to impair alertness, cognitive functioning and judgment,” the action alleges.

“In the grossly impaired condition caused by defendants’ conduct, plaintiff was then exposed to the additional hazard of an unsafe catamaran ferry. The ferry’s captain, a Sun Cay employee, failed to properly tie off the vessel and instead periodically used its engines to manoevere and hold the ferry in position adjacent to the pier while passengers disembarked.

“After being told on separate occasions that ‘the ocean is your toilet’ and to ‘use the water [to urinate]’, plaintiff entered the water at the aft of the ferry and was sucked into the vessel’s propeller, suffering a traumatic amputation of her left leg below the knee and devastating lacerations to her right leg,” Ms Smith and her attorneys asserted.

“Despite repeated efforts to save the right leg, Plaintiff underwent three successive surgical amputations of that leg - first below the knee, then above the knee with removal of the femur, and ultimately the amputation of the entire right leg. A previously healthy young woman, plaintiff now faces permanent bilateral lower-extremity loss, profound pain and suffering, extensive future medical care, prosthetics and lifelong psychological and physical consequences.”

Ms Pitre, too, in her separate lawsuit is alleging that she was left in a “grossly impaired condition” and a later toxicology test showed she was “positive for the same DFSA substance found in Hannah Smith”. She is also alleging that a “supervisor/bartender positioned himself behind [her] in a private, isolated cabana and pressed his hands and groin against her buttocks without her consent.

Recalling the accident, Ms Pitre alleged in her claim: “After Hannah Smith was directed to enter the water from the aft diver platform to relieve herself and was sucked into the ferry’s starboard propeller, suffering a near-traumatic amputation of her left leg below the knee, plaintiff - herself in zone of danger of the same propeller- single-handedly grabbed Hannah Smith’s extended hand to prevent her from being pulled back into the still-running propeller.

“A good Samaritan assisted plaintiff, and lifted Hannah Smith on to the swim platform with the lower portion of Hannah Smith’s left leg attached only by a sliver of skin. Plaintiff was covered in Hannah Smith’s blood. Plaintiff continued to render aid as Hannah Smith was moved aboard the vessel and ultimately transferred to emergency-medical-services personnel and a rescue vehicle for transport to a Nassau hospital.

“As a direct and proximate result of defendants’ conduct, plaintiff sustained direct toxicological and physical injury, and severe and permanent emotional and psychological injury, manifesting in symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder.”