World Vacation Travel v. Brooker, 3D01-451.

• Decision Date: 14 November 2001
• Docket Number: No. 3D01-451.,3D01-451.
• Citation: 799 So.2d 410
• Parties: WORLD VACATION TRAVEL, S.A., de C.V., et al., Appellants, v. Mark BROOKER, et al., Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

799 So.2d 410

WORLD VACATION TRAVEL, S.A., de C.V., et al., Appellants, v. Mark BROOKER, et al., Appellees.

No. 3D01-451.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

November 14, 2001.

Feldman, Gale & Weber, and Sean N.R. Wells, Miami; and Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle, and Turner P. Smith, for appellants.

Richman, Greer, Weil, Brumbaugh, Mirabito & Christensen, and Mark A. Romance, and Lyle E. Shapiro, and Gerald Richman, Miami, for appellees.

Before GERSTEN, SHEVIN, and RAMIREZ, JJ.

ON MOTIONS FOR REHEARING, REHEARING EN BANC, CLARIFICATION, AND/OR CERTIFICATION

PER CURIAM.

We grant appellees Mark Brooker's and Tami Brooker's motion for clarification only as to whether the forum selection clause applies to non-signatories to the subject time sharing agreement, and deny all other motions. This Court's opinion rendered June 13, 2001 is withdrawn and the following opinion is substituted in its place.

World Vacation Travel, et al., defendants below, appeal the denial of their motion to dismiss for improper venue in a breach of contract action filed by the Brookers. Because the forum selection clause at issue cannot be reasonably construed to be permissive in nature, we reverse.

World Vacation Travel and the Brookers entered into a time-sharing agreement on August 18, 1998. World Vacation Travel is a Mexican corporation that offers timesharing tourist services at various hotels in Cancun, Mexico. The Brookers, residents of British Colombia, Canada, are purchasers of a membership from World Vacation Travel. The time-sharing agreement contains a forum selection clause which states:

TWELFTH: JURISDICTION

In case of any controversy or dispute in the interpretation of this agreement, both parties agree and accept to be subjected to the jurisdiction and competence of the Administrative Authorities and Courts of the city of Cancun, Municipality of Benito Juarez, in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico, and the Federal Consumer Office, forsaking any other jurisdiction which either party may claim by virtue of its residency.

The Brookers subsequently brought a multi-count complaint in state circuit court against a number of parties, including World Vacation Travel, alleging that they breached the terms of the time-sharing agreement. World Vacation Travel moved to dismiss the Brookers' complaint for improper venue. The trial court denied World Vacation Travel's motion, holding that the Brookers were not required to bring their claims before the Mexican authorities because the forum selection clause contained in the time-sharing agreement was subject to two reasonable interpretations and thus, was permissive. The trial court also held, in the alternative, that enforcement of the forum selection clause as to any of the Brookers' claims would be violative of Florida public policy. We disagree with both grounds.

In Granados Quinones v. Swiss Bank Corp., S.A., 509 So.2d 273, 274 (Fla. 1987), the Supreme Court stated that mandatory clauses in contracts require that a particular forum be the exclusive jurisdiction for litigation concerning the contract. "A clause establishing ex ante the forum for dispute resolution has the salutory effect of dispelling any confusion about where suits arising from the contract must be brought and defended...." See Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. v. Shute, 499 U.S. 585, 593-94, 111 S.Ct. 1522, 113 L.Ed.2d 622 (1991)

. In this case, the language of the forum selection clause unequivocally specifies that any controversy or dispute that involves the contract is to be litigated in Mexico. To interpret the forum selection clause in any other way would require creative legerdemain and would frustrate its obvious intent.

Additionally, any clause which submits parties to the laws in force and the competent courts of a specific forum and simultaneously waives any other territorial...