Elizabeth’s Hospitality Law Blog / by Elizabeth Ardanowski

Well, here we are again – it is summertime in the United States, although officially summer doesn’t roll around until June 21st.  Someone forgot to mention that to the weather gods, because we’re already hitting temperatures near 100 degrees, and over 100 degrees if you consider the heat index values (at least in my part of the world).  So what are we to do?  Run our air conditioners constantly and look for ways to cool off.

My mind always turns to water and water-related activities this time of year.  Last summer and fall, I wrote about cryptosporidium and the problems it was causing in nearby water parks, both manmade and natural.  It seems many in the area have learned from experience and have insured that their facilities will remain crypto-free this summer.   Kudos to everyone for their efforts at keeping our fun water parks and pools safe! 

I also think of far-away water.  I recently visited Little Cayman on a scuba diving trip.  It was beautiful, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to dive.   I’m not going to write an entry about my fabulous diving experiences and terrific friends, however.  Instead, I was thinking about some of the legal issues cropping up while I was there. 

First, when you arrive and before you even set foot on the dive boat with your dive masters, you have to sign a whole slew of waivers.  OK, I understand they want to protect themselves from liability, especially because some categorize scuba diving as an extreme and dangerous sport.  I read through the waivers, and immediately thought “They can’t enforce this, the indemnity clauses don’t comply with legal requirements, and this waiver is easily bustable.”  But wait a minute – I was not in Texas or even the United States.  I was is the British West Indies, where the laws and legal system are different.   

Second, I got an ear infection while I was there and visited the clinic (the people there were kind and very competent).  The doctor prescribed some antibiotics, sudafed, and an anti-inflammatory (in my case, ibuprofen), and instructed me to stay out of the water for two weeks.  Despite the fact that I was back in the water the next day (it was a diving trip, afterall!!) my ear healed well.  But one thing that surprised me was the medicine bottle containing the antibiotics – there was no label with my name or the doctor’s name on it.  Nothing identifying the correct dosage.  Only the name of the antibiotic was written on the label.  Could that be a legal prescription?  Certainly not here in the United States, but what about in the Caymans?

All of these questions fall under the realm of hospitality law, which is why I am raising them here.  Of course, they also fall under other areas of law, but that is what I find so compelling about the hospitality industry – it covers a huge range of topics and legal issues, which is professionally fascinating for me, and like it or not, relevant to almost everything you do when traveling.  So in future posts, I plan to address the two issues raised above, and to address other issues you might raise from your travels this summer. 

And just so you know, there were absolutely no problems on our dive boat, Holiday Diver II with Dottie and Neal as our dive masters.  Everyone had a splendid time and the waivers we all signed were never made relevant.   As a lawyer, though, I’m always thinking about what could or might happen and how the laws will affect it.  So stay tuned for posts addressing these and other summer travel issues!

In the meantime, stay cool and have safe travels!

- Elizabeth