Judge tosses $21.5 million award in cruise injury case against Seattle-based Holland America

 


SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge has thrown out a $21.5 million jury verdict awarded to an Illinois man who claimed he was injured during an around-the-world cruise in 2011.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein made her decision on Tuesday, ordering a new trial after the man's former assistant came forward to say he had intentionally deleted emails that could have hurt his case.

James R. Hausman of Springfield, Illinois, sued Seattle-based Holland America in 2013. He said he suffered a brain injury when a sliding glass door struck his head as the vessel approached Honolulu.

But after the trial in October, Hausman's former personal assistant came forward to say she had watched him delete emails that he should have turned over to Holland America's lawyers.

No date has been set for the new trial.