Certain cruise lines are depriving Florida resident passengers of their right to a jury trial without their knowledge. Buried in nearly all cruise line boarding passes is what is known as a choice of forum clause. This clause dictates the court where an injured cruise passenger must bring the lawsuit. Carnival, Celebrity, Costa, Norwegian (NCL), Regent Seven Seas and Royal Caribbean, require their cruise passengers to file personal injury claims in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
As we reported in our article Court Requires Carnival Cruise Lines to Produce Contract in Order to Force an Injured Seaman Crew Member Employee to Arbitrate His Claim, a Miami Federal Court denied Carnival Cruise Lines’ attempt to preclude its crew member’s right to have a jury of his peers decide his personal injury claim in an American court by forcing the claim to be arbitrated in Panama. After Carnival’s attempt to force foreign arbitration failed, the Magistrate Judge recommended to the Judge presiding over the case that Carnival be fined $10,521 for its actions. Click to see the Magistrate Judge’s Recommendation to Sanction Carnival. On November 29, 2010, the presiding Judge accepted the Magistrate’s recommendation and ordered Carnival to pay the $10,521 fine. Click to see Order Fining Carnival.
Many cruise ship passengers slip and sustain injuries due to slippery decks each year. Maritime law imposes certain duties upon cruise lines to lessen the likelihood of such accidents and injuries. The purpose of this article is to explain these duties. Cruise lines are obligated under maritime law to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances for the safety of their passengers. In the context of slippery decks, this duty typically requires the cruise line to first warn passengers of the slippery condition and to make the area safe.
Boating accidents happen all the time. Our maritime lawyers are regularly contacted by people who have been injured in such accidents. There are many question a maritime lawyer must ask to determine what rights and remedies an injured person possesses. This article is intended to give just a sketch of how a maritime lawyer analyzes a boating accident injury claim.
Many boat owners do not know Great Lakes insurance company buries a provision in its marine insurance policy requiring all disputes arising from the policy be governed under New York law in the absence of “well established, entrenched principles and precedents of substantive United States Federal Admiralty law”. Even if the boat owner never traveled to New York, any dispute concerning the denial of a claim, in many instances, will be decided by New York law. The reason for this provision is because New York law favors insurance companies especially in the area of denying a claim in bad faith. Many states have statutes which provide for attorney’s fees and even punitive damages against an insurance company if a claim is denied when the insurance company knew or should have known the policy covered the claim. For example the Texas Insurance Code provides for attorney’s fees to be assessed against the insurance company for its failure to promptly, fairly, and equitably settle of a claim where coverage has become reasonable clear. By invoking New York law, Great Lakes is attempting to side-step any penalties for wrongfully denying marine insurance claims.
