America?s highest court has rejected an appeal by Celebrity Cruise Lines to overturn a $1 million judgment awarded to a passenger who was raped by a ship?s waiter while the ship was in Bermuda.

The decision by the US Supreme Court to reject the appeal without comment has broader ramifications since the lawsuit could have established a shield for the cruise industry from suits over crew-member assaults against passengers.

The decision brings to an end a six-year ordeal for the female passenger, who said a Turkish waiter on the ship had sexually assaulted her behind the public toilets at Par-la-Ville Park in July, 1999. The woman, who was 22 at the time, was a passenger on the Zenith travelling from New York to Bermuda. However, the judge overseeing the case called her testimony, ?self-contradicting and out of reason and all common sense? and dropped criminal charges against the 20-year-old waiter.

But the unnamed woman took her case to the courts in the US where a jury in November 2002 awarded her $1 million for her claim of negligence, sexual assault and sexual battery.

Although her complaint originally named the waiter, she pursued the lawsuit only against the companies. Claims were laid against Celebrity Cruises, owners of the , Zenith Shipping Corporation, Apollo Ship Chandlers and Celebrity Catering Services Partnership. In its 59-page opinion in November last year, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta wrote ?we conclude that the defendants owe a non-delegable duty to protect their passengers from crew member assaults and thereby safely transport their cruise?.

Celebrity?s parent company, Royal Caribbean, appealed the ruling and the award to the Supreme Court.

The appeal sought to overturn rulings that subject cruise lines, railroads and other ?common carriers? to so-called strict liability, making them legally responsible for worker misconduct even if the companies aren?t at fault.