MS Costa Luminosa is a cruise ship, owned and operated by Costa Crociere. Costa Luminosa entered service on May 5, 2009. Photo: Wikipedia.

A federal jury in Florida became the second to award damages of more than $1 million to cruise ship passenger Joyce Higgs, who fractured her arm and shoulder after tripping over a cleaning bucket that she claimed was negligently left out in a hallway.

The ship was operated by Costa Crociere, an Italian company owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp., which maintained it was not at fault over both trials.

The first trial wrapped up in 2016 when a Fort Lauderdale jury decided on a $1.1 million award, which was thrown out by the appellate court because the judge didn't admit evidence that Higgs had a history of prior falls.

“The end result comes out to be within $25,000 of what it was last time,” said Robert A. Chaffin of the Chaffin Law Firm in Texas, who served as co-counsel to Nicholas A. Homan on the case.

Read the jury verdict:

This time around, despite the admission of new evidence, Higgs was awarded more in past damages and less in future damages.

The jury found Costa 90 percent at fault, causing Higgs' liability to drop from 15 to 10 percent.

Lead counsel Homan presented a string of documents in his opening statement, which he said demonstrated Costa's attempts to conceal evidence, including photographs of the scene of the accident and the identity of a key witness.

Costa countered by questioning the severity of Higgs' injuries, arguing that prior arthritis, back and knee issues played a role.

Richard James McAlpin of McAlpin Conroy in Miami, lead counsel to the defense, did not respond to request for comment.

Click here to read the defense's answer to the complaint

“It was a hard-fought trial,” Chaffin said.

Chaffin had worried that Higgs, who stands at 5-foot-1, weighs 306 pounds and “could not walk into the courtroom without the assistance of a walker,” would face implicit bias from the “rather conservative jury” comprising businesspeople.

“We were trying a trip and fall case with a person that essentially can't walk anymore,” Chaffin said. “It's hard to overcome something like that, when the jury sees and makes an impression of what the person is like.”

The foreman of the jury had served as an accident investigator and claims adjuster, “which is unusual,” Chaffin said.

But ultimately, key evidence that had been introduced by Costa in the first trial paid off for the plaintiff.

Nicholas Homan, left, and Robert Chaffin, right, of the Chaffin Law Firm, in Texas, with their client Joyce Higgs center. Courtesy photo.

“They had a surveillance team make videos of [Higgs] when she took her compulsory medical exam about two and a half years ago,” Chaffin said. “At the time they made they video, she weighed about 40 pounds less and was able to walk much, much better.”

With that, Chaffin and Homan argued that her injuries had caused her health to deteriorate since 2016.

Chaffin said Higgs, a retired schoolteacher living on slightly more than $1,000 a month, is pleased with the result. But he's hesitant to call it a victory just yet.

“It ain't over until it's over,” Chaffin said. And, as he tells it, there's room for compromise.

“We'd be willing to give some sort of a modest discount,” he noted. “She's 72 years old now. She's not getting any younger, and her health is not that good. She could certainly use the money to help smooth the way along in life, because it's hard to live on $1,000 a month.”

Related story: Woman Awarded $1.1 Million in Cruise Dining Room Fall