## Facts

- Three elderly married couples, all U.S. citizens, booked a 13-night cruise on Costa Crociere’s ship, traveling from Singapore to Hong Kong.
- During a Costa-organized land excursion in the Da Nang area of Vietnam, the plaintiffs were allegedly injured in a January 1994 automobile accident.
- The plaintiffs alleged Costa conducted substantial U.S. marketing and sales through a Miami office and solicited their business through U.S. travel channels.
- The plaintiffs filed tort suits in the Southern District of Florida under diversity jurisdiction.
- Costa moved to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds.

## Issues

1. In a federal diversity action, whether federal forum non conveniens doctrine or the forum state’s forum non conveniens law governs a motion to dismiss.

## Decision

- The Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court’s forum non conveniens dismissals and remanded.
- The court held that federal forum non conveniens doctrine governs in diversity cases.
- The court concluded the district court erred by applying Florida’s forum non conveniens doctrine and by declining to follow binding circuit precedent.
- The court did not decide whether dismissal would be warranted under the federal standard, leaving that determination to the district court on remand.

## Legal Principles

- In the Eleventh Circuit, forum non conveniens in federal court is governed by federal law even when jurisdiction rests on diversity.
- Forum non conveniens is treated as a federal procedural doctrine tied to federal courts’ inherent authority to manage their dockets and determine the appropriate forum.
- Erie does not require importing state forum non conveniens rules into federal court because the doctrine is procedural rather than a state-created substantive right.
- Circuit precedent (including Sibaja) controls district courts’ choice between state and federal forum non conveniens standards in diversity cases.

## Conclusion

The Eleventh Circuit held that federal, not state, forum non conveniens doctrine applies in federal diversity cases and reversed the dismissals because the district court applied Florida’s standard rather than the federal rule.


Esfeld v. Costa Crociere, S.P.A., 289 F.3d 1300 (11th Cir. 2002)