Facts
- Compagno was a passenger aboard the S/S Enchanted Seas on a cruise departing from New Orleans with stops including Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.
- Compagno alleged he was injured while a passenger during the voyage.
- Compagno’s passenger ticket served as the passage contract between the parties.
- The ticket contained a forum-selection clause providing that all disputes “shall be litigated, if at all, before a court located in the State, City, and County of New York to the exclusion of the courts of any other country, states, city or county.”
- Compagno filed his personal-injury action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
- Commodore Cruise Line moved to dismiss (or, alternatively, transfer) based on the New York forum-selection clause.
- Compagno opposed enforcement of the clause.
Issues
- Whether the forum-selection clause in the cruise passenger ticket requiring suit in courts located in the State, City, and County of New York is enforceable against a passenger asserting a personal-injury claim filed in Louisiana.
- If the clause is enforceable, whether the Louisiana federal action should be dismissed (or transferred) so the dispute proceeds in the contractually selected New York forum.
Decision
- The court enforced the ticket’s mandatory forum-selection clause selecting New York.
- The court granted Commodore Cruise Line’s motion to enforce the contractual forum and declined to allow the case to proceed in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
- The court dismissed the Louisiana action so the claim could be pursued in the forum required by the passage contract.
Legal Principles
- A passenger ticket is a maritime contract, and federal maritime law generally treats forum-selection clauses as presumptively valid.
- A forum-selection clause will be enforced unless the resisting party makes a strong showing that enforcement would be unreasonable or unjust, or that the clause resulted from fraud or overreaching.
- Mandatory, exclusive language (such as “shall be litigated, if at all” and “to the exclusion of” other courts) indicates the parties selected a single forum and supports enforcement.
- A ticket clause directing where “all disputes” must be litigated can apply to passenger tort claims arising from the voyage, not only contract-based disputes.
- When an exclusive forum-selection clause requires litigation in another forum, a federal court may dismiss an action filed in a nonselected forum to give effect to the parties’ agreement.
Conclusion
In Compagno v. Commodore Cruise Line, the Eastern District of Louisiana treated the cruise ticket as a maritime passage contract and enforced its mandatory New York forum-selection clause, granting the cruise line’s motion and dismissing the Louisiana-filed personal-injury suit so the dispute would be litigated in the New York forum specified in the ticket.