Date: 1/12/2003
An insurance executive has reached a US$17.5 million settlement with the Ritz-Carltonâs Jamaican resort over a botched scuba dive that left him paralyzed from the chest down. It was believed to be the largest individual personal injury settlement in Florida. Schiner was with a boatload of divers who paid for a reef dive to a depth of 20m but ended up at 52m. Schiner, then 41, passed out soon after surfacing from the January 2001 dive and was flown to Miami for treatment. He spent nearly 200 days in the hospital last year and is now a paraplegic.