Carnival Cruise Lines Sues Rolls Royce for $100 Million

These are not the halcyon days of the auto-industry. That is, if you can have a time, usually in the past, of greatest happiness or success actually in the present. Which you probably can't, but that's neither here nor there. The point being that with GM, Ford and Chrysler all already in trouble, it appears as if luxury automotive dealer Rolls Royce might be facing a little financial problem too.

Only they're not running out of money; they're just getting sued by Carnival Cruise lines. For $100 million.

According to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Carnival seeks more than $100 million, claiming that Rolls-Royce defrauded Carnival into the "selection, acceptance and continued use" of the Mermaid pod propulsion system.

"The Mermaids are simply defective and do not function as it was represented that they would," the suit states. "Most importantly, it is now also clear that the defendants have known about this situation all along and that they have deliberately conspired to mislead, deceive and defraud Carnival into believing otherwise."

The Mermaids are, obviously, made by Rolls Royce (engines, natch) and used by Carnival on their boats. And oddly enough, this isn't the first time that Carnival has come after the high end auto maker -- in 2003, the cruise line sued them for issues with a propulsion pod system and asking for $300 million.

So, at least on the bright side, Carnival recognizes that these are tough economic times and is being reasonable about how much they're asking for from Rolls.