The Princess Cruise Lines' Grand Princess is moored off the shore of San Francisco in the bay awaiting a 14-day quarantine period. (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

The first class action filed over the Grand Princess cruise ship quarantined last month off the coast of California hit the courts on Wednesday, alleging gross negligence in exposing more than 2,000 passengers to the coronavirus.

The class action joins at least half a dozen individual lawsuits already filed against Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. over its handling of the voyage, after which 21 passengers and crew tested positive for the coronavirus and two died.

"Carnival and Princess should simply have told incoming passengers about the known presence of coronavirus on its ships, and the Grand Princess in particular," said Elizabeth Cabraser, of San Francisco's Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, which filed the lawsuit in the Northern District of California with Mary Alexander, of Mary Alexander & Associates in San Francisco. "Instead, because of Defendants' choices, the passengers were led unknowingly onto a ship where they would be unavoidably mingling in close quarters with over 1,000 other people already exposed to and potentially infected with COVID-19."

Princess Cruise Lines said in a statement, "Princess Cruises has been sensitive to the difficulties the COVID-19 outbreak has caused to our guests and crew. Our response throughout this process has focused on the well-being of our guests and crew within the parameters dictated to us by the government agencies involved and the evolving medical understanding of this new illness. We do not comment on any pending litigation."

Last month, Princess Cruise said it would "voluntarily pause global operations" of its 18 cruise ships from March 12 to May 10.

The Grand Princess left San Francisco on Feb. 21 for Hawaii. The lawsuit alleges that Princess Cruise failed to adequately screen passengers and crew, quarantine those with the coronavirus or implement procedures for social distancing and disinfecting. The company also knew that the Grand Princess had sailed from San Francisco to Mexico on an earlier voyage, during which at least three passengers reported COVID-19 symptoms, yet chose to allow 62 of the same passengers and more than 1,000 crew members to remain on board for the Hawaii excursion.

Also, the suit notes, about 700 cases of coronavirus broke out on another of its cruise ships, the Diamond Princess, quarantined off the coast of Japan. Seven of those passengers died, including two before the Grand Princess' departure to Hawaii. Australian authorities also have launched a criminal investigation into another of its cruise ships, the Ruby Princess, which sailed between Australia and New Zealand. More than 600 passengers on that ship have tested positive for the coronavirus, 10 of whom died.

Nine passengers of the Hawaii cruise, all from California, filed the class action against Princess Cruise and its parent company, Carnival Corp., and another subsidiary, Fairline Shipping International Corp. Ltd., the vessel's owner. One of the named plaintiffs was diagnosed and treated for coronavirus.

The suit seeks damages for medical costs and emotional distress, plus punitive damages.