Cruise Ship Law

VICTORIJA PORINA, as personal representative of Arnis Porins, deceased, LUBOVA BOILOVICA, as personal representative of Victor Boilovic, deceased, JEKARETINA JEMELIGANOVA, as personal representative of Vladimir Lisenko, deceased, KARLIS PUKITIS, as personal representative Ignus Pukitis, deceased, MARTIN ZAKALOVSKIS, as personal representative of Janis Zakalovskis, deceased, TAMARA NAZAROVA, as personal representative of Igors Nazarovs, deceased and SIA "BUTE", Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. MARWARD SHIPPING CO., LTD., Defendant-Appellee.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 6903
April 1, 2008, Decided

PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Plaintiffs, the owner of a fishing vessel and representatives of the fishermen who died when the vessel sank, sued defendant, the owner of a cargo ship, alleging that the cargo ship struck the fishing vessel, and that the collision resulted from the negligence of those operating the cargo ship. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction. Plaintiffs appealed.



OVERVIEW: Plaintiffs' suit relied on general maritime law; their claim, therefore, was one that arose under federal law for the purposes of Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(2). However, the Fifth Amendment's due process clause barred the exercise of personal jurisdiction. In asserting that the ship owner had continuous and systematic contacts with the United States, plaintiffs relied primarily on the cargo ship's repeated visits to various ports in the United States. The difficulty with plaintiffs' assertion was that none of the visits were made at the ship owner's direction. The decision to bring the cargo ship to the United States was made, in each case, by the ship's charterers, who were free under the charters to take the ship to any safe port in the world. The ship owner was entitled to receive the same financial benefit regardless of where the charterers directed the vessel. The ship owner could not constitutionally be subjected to personal jurisdiction with respect to an unrelated suit merely because, as the owner may have expected, the ship had repeatedly visited the forum's ports at the sole direction of its charterers.



OUTCOME: The judgment of the district court was affirmed.