The Third District has presented to the Florida Supreme Court a question of great public importance as it relates to the enforceability of forum selection clauses in cruise ship tickets. While the dissenting judge suggests that this is just a “garden variety personal injury case with a contractual twist,” the panel (based in Miami) likely recognized the significance of the cruise line industry in Miami-Dade and elsewhere in the state.
In Walter Weisenberg v. Costa Crociere (Cope, Shepherd and Suarez), the forum selection clause read:
For cruises which depart from, return to, or make any
port call at a United States port, Passenger further agrees
that any suit against CARRIER shall be filed exclusively
in the United States District Court for the Southern
District of Florida located in Broward County, Florida,
and that any such suit shall be based exclusively upon the
admiralty jurisdiction of the United States District Court.
In short, it must be in federal court in Ft. Lauderdale and federal jurisdiction is conferred by admiralty law. The Plaintiff claimed that this was not sufficient notice of the need to file in federal court and that there would not be a jury. A prior case from last year, Leslie v. Carnival Cruise, involved a slightly different clause which did not require admiralty jurisdiction.
Question of GPI presented is:
IS A FORUM SELECTION CLAUSE ENFORCEABLE
IN CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE ITS EFFECT IS
THAT PASSENGERS WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A
JURY TRIAL BUT THE CLAUSE DOES NOT
EXPRESSLY SO STATE?