Virgin Cruises seeks dismissal of Veitch lawsuit

Virgin Cruises has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed in March that alleges it misappropriated the basics of its cruise strategy from Colin Veitch, a former cruise line CEO turned consultant.

In a motion filed June 1, Virgin argues that any agreement between Veitch’s consulting firm and Virgin Management USA falls short of a working partnership that could form the basis of a lawsuit.

In addition, the response says communications between the two parties indicated that a preliminary agreement on how income would be allocated between the partners was subject to later revision. In filing suit, Veitch said that Virgin unilaterally revised the financial terms of the partnership once it realize the potential for profits. At that point, the partnership fell apart, the lawsuit said.

Virgin also asks that the Veitch lawsuit be dismissed because it names a number of Virgin entities as defendants but fails to say what misconduct is attributable to each defendant.

Virgin, which is associated with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, said in December it will enter the cruise business by building two new “world-class cruise ships."

The Veitch lawsuit contends that the business outlined by Virgin was based on a plan for “ultra ships” that he presented to Virgin in 2011.

Veitch was Norwegian Cruise Line's CEO from 2000 to 2008.