Pensioners win massive £80k payout after Arctic cruise cancelled for being ‘too cold’

A pensioner couple has been successful in a lawsuit against a company who cancelled their Arctic cruise over cold weather without returning their money.

Nicholas Sherman, 76, and his wife, Rosemary, 75 took cruise operators Reader Offers to court in 2018, demanding their $25,000 in ticket costs of their cruise of a lifetime back.

The pair initially lost their lawsuit at Winchester County Court and, to add insult to injury, were ordered to pay $75,000 to cover Reader Offers’ legal fees.

However, The Times reports that after an appeal, a verdict ruled in their favour in the High Court last year, and that the decision was confirmed by British Court of Appeal judges last week.

The couple first brought up their lawsuit because their tickets for the “Northwest Passage—in the Wake of the Great Explorers” was not as they expected.

Instead of sailing through the waters of Arctic Canada, the couple said they mostly just cruised the coast of Greenland, with some time at Baffin Island.

Reader Offers offered apologies and cited abnormally cold weather and ice as the reason the trip couldn’t go on as planned.

However, despite the apology, they offered no financial compensation for those on board the cruise.

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The pair spoke in court revealing that while they had stopped in Antarctica, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, South Africa, and India, the trip throughout Arctic Canada had a personal resonance.

Speaking in court, Rosemary Sherman said she is Canadian herself, and the trip would have been an opportunity for her to see the less-visited parts of her country.

Also, the pair took an interest in visiting Sherman Inlet in Nunavut, Canada, which is named after his forebear, Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Nicholas Sherman said the case had “nothing to do with the money” and was instead about “principle.”

Sherman added that he hopes his court victory will protect other travellers in similar circumstances in the future.