Lurie v. Norwegian Cruise Lines, Ltd.

• Decision Date: 26 February 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03 Civ. 5033(PKL).,03 Civ. 5033(PKL).
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York
• Parties: Beth LURIE and Mark Lurie, Plaintiffs, v. NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES, LTD. and M/V Norwegian Star, Defendants.

305 F.Supp.2d 352

Beth LURIE and Mark Lurie, Plaintiffs, v. NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES, LTD. and M/V Norwegian Star, Defendants.

No. 03 Civ. 5033(PKL).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

February 26, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Barry R. Fertel, Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP, New York City, for Plaintiffs Beth Lurie and Mark Lurie.

Peter A. Junge, Armand P. Mele, Lambos & Junge, New York City, for Defendant Norwegian Cruise Lines, Ltd.

OPINION AND ORDER

LEISURE, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Beth and Mark Lurie, residents of New York, brought this action under the Court's diversity jurisdiction seeking damages for unlawful imprisonment and breach of contract. Plaintiffs' claims arise from their alleged mistreatment at the hands of defendant Norwegian Cruise Lines, Ltd. ("NCL"), a Florida corporation with its principle place of business in Miami, Florida, while on board NCL's cruise ship, Norwegian Star. NCL now moves to dismiss this case based on a forum selection clause contained in the passenger ticket contract issued to plaintiffs for their cruise that requires claims against NCL to be brought in Dade County, Florida. Plaintiffs oppose this motion and, as an alternative to dismissal, request that the Court transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. For the reasons stated below, the Court finds that the forum selection clause is valid and enforceable and orders transfer rather than dismissal.

I. Background

This case arises from a series of unfortunate incidents that occurred aboard NCL's passenger cruise ship, Norwegian Star, in late February 2003. On or about January 23, 2003, plaintiffs, Beth Lurie and her husband Mark Lurie, purchased tickets for a week-long Hawaiian cruise aboard this ship, scheduled to depart on February 23, 2003 from Honolulu, Hawaii. Defendants arranged for this cruise through Cruise Value Center, a discount travel agency located in East Brunswick, New Jersey. On or about February 21, plaintiffs flew from New York to Honolulu and, after spending two nights in a hotel, boarded the Norwegian Star on February 23. Trouble surfaced, however, on February 28, when the ship docked in Maui, Hawaii. The Luries claim they were forcefully prevented from disembarking with the rest of the passengers at Maui and unlawfully detained in a locked room, incommunicado by defendants. Plaintiffs further allege that later that day, subsequent to their detention, they were ejected from the cruise by NCL and forbidden from returning to the ship, in breach of NCL's contractual obligation to provide a seven-day luxury cruise.

While the bare allegations regarding the events of February 28 are certainly unusual, the circumstances surrounding those events are even more intriguing. As it turns out, Beth Lurie is a paralegal in the bankruptcy department of Jenkins & Gilchrist Parker Chapin LLP, a law firm representing certain employees of NCL in a class action against NCL pending in this District. That class action involves claims by the employees that they were not paid overtime and other wages required by law. According to Ms. Lurie, she had only a general knowledge of that lawsuit before embarking on the cruise, similar to what one could glean from reading a legal newspaper. At some point during the cruise, however, she received an email from a partner at Jenkins & Gilchrist asking that she investigate the suspicious number of opt out forms submitted by crew members aboard the Norwegian Star. At that point, she apparently questioned three crew members about whether they were being improperly influenced to opt-out of the class action. According to Ms. Lurie, "the reason we were forcibly ejected from the ship and held incommunicado for hours was to terrorize us, and prevent anyone from learning how Norwegian was not only mistreating its employees, but how it interfered with their right to participate in a pending class action before this Court." (Lurie Decl. ¶ 4.)

NCL, not surprisingly, offers a different account, suggesting that Ms. Lurie planned all along to use the trip for the purpose of investigating the treatment of employees on the Norwegian Star. NCL claims that both Ms. Lurie and her husband were observed interviewing crew members who were not plaintiffs in the pending class action. According to NCL, the Luries "were openly asking those crew members about their work conditions, to wit: if they were receiving fair treatment, if they were being given time sheets, and if they were sure [that] they wanted to be excluded from the ... class action." (Kilgour Decl. at ¶ 7.) NCL claims that if the Luries were, in fact, detained and then removed from the ship, "the vessel's Master took reasonable action within his authority to deter and prevent plaintiffs from both continuing to disrupt the efficient operation of the vessel and undermining the maintenance of order and discipline of the crew at sea." (Def. Mem. at 3.)

At this stage of the litigation, however, the Court need not determine which party has presented a more accurate version of what took place aboard the Norwegian Star. While these events are sure to be hotly litigated at the merits stage, the Court's focus here is on the limited issue of whether to enforce the forum selection clause contained in the Luries' passenger ticket contract. That clause states as follows:

This Contract shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of Florida and the laws of the United States of America. It is hereby agreed that any and all claims, disputes or controversies whatsoever arising from or in connection with this Contract and the transportation furnished hereunder shall be commenced, filed and litigated, if at all, before a court of proper jurisdiction located in Dade County, Florida, U.S.A.

(Kilgour Decl., Ex. A; Lurie Decl., Ex. A.) Relying on this clause, NCL moves to dismiss this action as being filed in an improper forum. Plaintiffs, on the other hand, argue that the clause is unenforceable because they were not given adequate notice of the terms of the contract and did not have a reasonable opportunity to reject the contract without penalty. Plaintiffs further argue that the terms of the forum selection clause should not apply here because NCL's conduct was deliberate and because plaintiffs' claim for false imprisonment does not arise out of the terms of the contract between the parties. Finally, plaintiffs argue that should the Court decide to enforce the forum selection clause, the appropriate remedy would be to transfer the case to the Southern District of Florida in the interests of justice. The Court finds that because the plaintiffs had reasonable notice of the forum selection clause, and because the clause does not violate principles of fundamental fairness, the forum selection provision is valid and enforceable as to the plaintiffs. Rather than dismissing the action, however, the Court finds that the appropriate remedy here is to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

II. Discussion

As an initial matter, a passenger ticket contract is a maritime contract and therefore governed by the general maritime law of the United States. See, e.g., Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. v. Shute, 499 U.S. 585, 590, 111 S.Ct. 1522, 113 L.Ed.2d 622 (1991); The Moses Taylor, 4 Wall. 411, 71 U.S. 411, 427, 18 L.Ed. 397 (1867); Vavoules v. Kloster Cruise Ltd., 822 F.Supp. 979, 982 (E.D.N.Y.1993) (Weinstein, J.) (compiling cases). The fact that plaintiffs have invoked the Court's diversity jurisdiction in their complaint does not change the analysis; regardless of the choice of forum or basis of subject matter jurisdiction, disputes relating to maritime contracts and injuries sustained aboard a ship are governed by federal maritime law. See, e.g., Melnik v. Cunard Line Ltd., 875 F.Supp. 103, 106 (N.D.N.Y.1994); Vavoules, 822 F.Supp. at 982-83.

NCL brings its motion to dismiss "pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b) and 12(c), and case law." (Def.'s Mem. at 1.) This studious circumspection is not the result of a lack of research, however, as the proper procedural mechanism for requesting dismissal based on a forum selection clause is an open question in the Second Circuit. See New Moon Shipping Co., Ltd. v. MAN B & W Diesel AG, 121 F.3d 24, 28-29 (2d Cir.1997); Glyphics Media, Inc. v. M.V. CONTI SINGAPORE, 2003 WL 1484145 at *3 (S.D.N.Y.2003). The difficulty with this question arises from the fact that a forum selection clause cannot oust a federal court of personal or subject matter jurisdiction or render venue improper. Nor can it accurately be said to nullify a plaintiff's valid substantive claim. As a result, there is no consensus among the circuits or within the Second Circuit on the proper procedure for enforcing such provisions. Id. at 28 (citing the varying procedural devices employed by different courts to enforce forum selection clauses, including Rule 12(b)(1), 12(b)(3), and 12(b)(6)). Indeed, "there is no easy answer to the enforcement procedure question because there is no existing mechanism with which forum selection enforcement is a perfect fit." Id. at 29 (citing Patrick J. Borchers, Forum Selection Agreements in the Federal Courts after Carnival Cruise: A Proposal for Congressional Reform, 67 Wash. L.Rev. 55 (1992)).

While the Second Circuit has declined to adopt a particular procedural device under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for seeking dismissal based on a forum selection clause, it is clear that a district court has the authority to order such a dismissal. This authority is rooted in the Court's inherent authority to "decline jurisdiction" as a means of enforcing a valid forum selection clause in a contract. See New Moon, 121 F.3d at 28; GMAC Commercial Credit, LLC v. Dillard Dep't Stores, Inc., 198 F.R.D. 402, 405 (S.D.N.Y.2001); Licensed Practical Nurses, Technicians and Health Care Workers of New York, Inc. v. Ulysses...