Carnival Corp. v. Garcia

• Decision Date: 03 January 2018
• Docket Number: No. 3D17–0445,3D17–0445
• Citation: 237 So.3d 1110
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Parties: CARNIVAL CORPORATION, Appellant, v. Mirta GARCIA, Appellee.

237 So.3d 1110

CARNIVAL CORPORATION, Appellant,
v.
Mirta GARCIA, Appellee.

No. 3D17–0445

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

Opinion filed January 3, 2018

Ross and Girten, Miami, FL, and Lauri Waldman Ross, and Theresa L. Girten ; Foreman Friedman, P.A., Miami, FL, and Jeffrey E. Foreman and Noah D. Silverman, for appellant.

Alvarez, Carbonell, Cooke, Feltman, & DaSilva, PL., Coral Gables, FL, and Paul B. Feltman, for appellee.

Before LOGUE, LUCK and LINDSEY, JJ.

LINDSEY, J.

Carnival Corporation appeals the trial court's denial of its motion for reconsideration of its motion to dismiss (the "motion to dismiss") which sought dismissal of this action for improper venue. Because the federal court has admiralty jurisdiction

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over this action, and because the cruise contract that governs the relationship between Carnival Corporation ("Carnival") and the plaintiff below required this lawsuit to be filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, we reverse for the reasons more fully set forth below.¹

I. BACKGROUND

Mirta Garcia purchased a ticket to cruise on the M/V CARNIVAL VICTORY, a cruise ship she alleges is owned and/or operated by Carnival departing on November 7, 2013. Bold, capitalized language on the top of the "ticket contract" stated:

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO GUESTS THIS DOCUMENT IS A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT ISSUED BY CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES TO, AND ACCEPTED BY, GUEST SUBJECT TO THE IMPORTANT TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPEARING BELOW.

NOTICE: THE ATTENTION OF GUEST IS ESPECIALLY DIRECTED TO CLAUSES 1, 4 AND 10 THROUGH 13, WHICH CONTAIN IMPORTANT LIMITATIONS ON THE RIGHTS OF GUESTS TO ASSERT CLAIMS AGAINST CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES, THE VESSEL, THEIR AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES, AND OTHERS, INCLUDING FORUM SELECTION, ARBITRATION AND WAIVER OF JURY TRIAL FOR CERTAIN CLAIMS.

Paragraph 13, entitled "Jurisdiction, Venue, Arbitration and Time Limits for Claims," contains the following forum selection provision:

(c) [I]t is agreed by and between the Guest and Carnival that all disputes and matters whatsoever arising under, in connection with or incident to this Contract or the Guest's cruise, including travel to and from the vessel, shall be litigated, if at all, before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, or as to those lawsuits to which the Federal Courts of the United States lack subject matter jurisdiction, before a court located in Miami–Dade County, Florida, U.S.A. to the exclusion of the Courts of any other county, state or country.

Garcia sued Carnival in state court for injuries allegedly sustained at the Port of Miami terminal while riding on an escalator to embark on her cruise.² Garcia asserted jurisdiction is proper in state court

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under "general maritime law" and the "savings to suitors clause" of 28 U.S.C. section 1333. In her complaint, Garcia alleged she was a business invitee of Carnival and that Carnival undertook the duty to supervise, control, and direct the embarkation of its business invitees using the escalator and, specifically, that "[i]n order to board the vessel, she and a crowd of people were directed [by Carnival] to utilize an escalator leading up a ramp, the upper landing of which led to the vessel's gangway." Garcia claimed she was injured when she fell because the escalator jolted, purportedly due to "crowded conditions on board the escalator[ ] and a lack of crowd control," all of which Garcia attributed to negligence on the part of Carnival. Further, Garcia contended Carnival, among other things, breached its non-delegable duty to provide safe ingress and egress to the vessel by failing to provide an "appropriately designed entranceway to the M/V [CARNIVAL VICTORY]." And, Garcia alleged Carnival breached its assumed duty to supervise, control, and direct the embarkation of business invitees on board various ships including the M/V CARNIVAL VICTORY.

Carnival moved to dismiss, arguing that venue was improper because the ticket contract between Garcia and Carnival contains a forum selection clause which requires all suits for personal injuries to be filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. In her response, Garcia asserted that the case was properly filed in state court because the United States District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. After a hearing in July of 2015, the trial court entered an order denying the motion to dismiss.

In November of 2015, after this Court decided Newell v. Carnival Cruise Lines, 180 So.3d 178 (Fla. 3d DCA 2015), Carnival moved for reconsideration of the trial court's prior order denying dismissal and for dismissal based on Newell. Over a year later, the trial court entered an order reconsidering its prior order but adhering to its initial ruling denying dismissal. The trial court found venue proper in state court in Miami–Dade County because the United States District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. This timely appeal follows.

II. JURISDICTION

This Court has jurisdiction to review non-final orders that concern venue under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.130(a)(3)(A). "This rule enables a party to seek review of an adverse decision on venue before that party is forced to litigate the entire controversy in the wrong forum." Regal Kitchens, Inc. v. O'Connor & Taylor Condo. Constr., Inc., 894 So.2d 288, 290 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005) (quoting Mgmt. Computer Controls, Inc. v. Charles Perry Constr., Inc., 743 So.2d 627, 630 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999) ).

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW

As the trial court's order denying Carnival's motion to dismiss was based on the interpretation of the contractual forum selection clause, this Court's standard of review is de novo. Celistics, LLC v. Gonzalez, 22 So.3d 824, 825 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009).

IV. ANALYSIS

A federal court's authority to hear cases in admiralty flows initially from the United States Constitution, which " ‘extend[s]’ federal judicial power' to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction.' " Jerome B. Grubart v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 513 U.S. 527, 531, 115 S.Ct. 1043, 130 L.Ed.2d 1024 (1995) (alteration in original) (citing U.S. Const., Art. III, § 2). Section 1333 prescribes: "The district courts shall

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have original jurisdiction, exclusive of the courts of the States, of: (1) Any civil case of admiralty or maritime jurisdiction, saving to suitors in all cases all other remedies to which they are otherwise entitled." 28 U.S.C. § 1333(1).

The mandatory forum selection clause contained in the ticket contract applies to "all disputes... incident to this Contract or the Guest's cruise, including travel to and from the vessel" and provides for venue in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami for those lawsuits over which the federal court has subject matter jurisdiction. See, e.g., Carnival Cruise Lines v. Shute, 499 U.S. 585, 111 S.Ct. 1522, 113 L.Ed.2d 622 (1991) (finding a forum selection clause in a commercial cruise ticket contract enforceable); Carnival Corp. v. Booth, 946 So.2d 1112 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006) (enforcing a forum selection clause identical to the one in the present appeal); Leslie v. Carnival, 22 So.3d 561 (Fla. 3d DCA 2008) (enforcing a nearly identical forum selection clause as the one in the instant appeal), aff'd by an equally divided court en banc, 22 So.3d 567 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009), rev. denied, 44 So.3d 1178 (Fla. 2010), cert. denied, 562 U.S. 1270, 131 S.Ct. 1603, 179 L.Ed.2d 499 (2011). Thus, it follows that only in the absence of admiralty jurisdiction, will proper venue lie in a state court in Miami–Dade County.

The issue before us, then, is whether the federal court or the state court has subject matter jurisdiction. Carnival contends that our recent decision in Newell, and the cases on which we relied therein, compels reversal and dismissal.³ 180 So.3d 178. In response, Garcia contends Newell does not apply because the injury here occurred prior to embarkation and seeks affirmance based on Fernandez v. Ceres Marine Terminals, Inc., 2013 WL 1663333, at *1, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54992, at *1 (M.D. Fla. Apr. 17 2013) and Vincenzo v. Carnival Corp., 2012 WL 1428888, at *1, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57040, at *1 (S.D. Fla. Apr. 24, 2012).⁴

In Newell, a passenger who had just completed a Carnival cruise alleged she was injured in the Port of Miami after exiting the ship when she fell over a metal stand located on a pathway between the luggage claim area and the United States Customs station. 180 So.3d at 179. The passenger sued Carnival in state court in Miami–Dade County alleging that Carnival negligently maintained or created the walkway by its placement of the metal stands. Id. at 179–80. The ticket contract between Carnival and the passenger contained a forum selection clause requiring that any prospective clams "arising under, in connection with or incident to [the...