The family of a 15-year-old girl who was shot and killed by crossfire in a gang fight that broke out while she was on an excursion from a cruise ship can sue Carnival Corp. for negligence, a federal appeals court has ruled.

According to the Sept. 5 ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Miami in Aida Esther Chaparro et al. v. Carnival Corp., Liz Marie Perez Chaparro was on a Caribbean cruise aboard a vessel of Miami-based Carnival with her family when she was killed.

A male Carnival employee suggested to her father, Amilkar Perez Chaparro, that they visit Coki Beach and Coral World upon disembarking the ship in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. On July 12, 2010, Ms. Chaparro and her family left the ship and traveled to Coki Beach independently of the ship's sponsored excursions, court records state.

On their way back, they rode in an open-air bus past a funeral of a gang member. Funeral attendees' cars were parked along the narrow road, blocking the passage of the bus. While the bus was stuck in traffic, shots broke out among gang members and Ms. Chaparro was hit.

While bus passengers called for an ambulance, it did not arrive and the bus driver speeded to the hospital. Ms. Chaparro was declared dead from a gunshot wound to the abdomen shortly after arriving.

Ms. Chaparro's parents and brother filed suit, accusing Carnival of negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress for failing to warn them about reported gang-related violence in the area.

A lower court granted Carnival's motion to dismiss the case, saying the complaint's allegations were “conclusory and insufficiently factual.”

However, a three-judge appeals court panel overturned that ruling. It said the complaint alleged that a Carnival employee encouraged the family to visit Coki Beach; that Carnival knew of the site's reputation for drug sales, theft and gang violence; and that it knew, or should have known, about the gang member's shooting and funeral because it monitors crime in its ports of call.

“The facts alleged in the complaint are plausible and raise a reasonable expectation that discovery could supply additional proof of Carnival's liability,” the panel ruled in overturning the lower court's dismissal of the negligence claim.

The panel also reinstated the claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress, noting the complaint alleges that the family was trapped in the bus during the violence, witnessed Ms. Chaparro's shooting and death, and that they have "consequently experienced various physical manifestations of their emotional distress.”

A Carnival spokeswoman said in an email that the company does not comment on pending litigation, but pointed to its statement after the shooting in which Carnival said it was “profoundly shocked and saddened by this tragedy.”