Cruise Ship Law

PABLO MEMBRENO, Plaintiff, vs. COSTA CROCIERE, S.p.A., aforeign corp., and CSCS INTERNATIONAL N.V., a foreign corp., Defendants.

CASE NO. 03-61180-CIV-HUCK/TURNOFF
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25116
November 23, 2004, Decided
November 23, 2004, Filed

PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Plaintiff filed a complaint, alleging five-counts under the Jones Act and general maritime law against four defendants related to a personal injury that he alleged occurred while he was working on a cruise ship. Defendants moved to dismiss based upon forum non conveniens.

OVERVIEW: The Jones Act and the general maritime law of the United States did not apply and the private and public factors weighed in favor of the case being tried in one of the three countries, Italy, Honduras, or the Netherlands Antilles, with a greater interest in the action and where there were available and adequate fora. There appeared to be no real disagreement that six of the eight choice of law factors weighed in favor of defendants' contention that the Jones Act and U.S. maritime law did not apply. As to the place of the accident, the accident did not occur within the U.S. or U.S. territorial waters. The remaining question was whether defendants' base of operations was in the U.S. or whether defendants otherwise had sufficient contacts with the U.S. to warrant the application of U.S. law. Defendants' limited commercial activities in the U.S. and its business affiliation with two U.S. companies for purposes that were ancillary to plaintiff's employment were not sufficiently substantial connections to justify application of U.S. law. All of the forum non conveniens factors weighed in favor of dismissal and allowing the case to be heard in a more convenient and appropriate forum.

OUTCOME: Defendants' motion to dismiss based upon forum non conveniens was granted, and the case was dismissed without prejudice to plaintiff's ability to re-file the action in an alternative forum or to reinstate his action in the instant court if no alternative fora accepted his case.