## Facts

- Kevin O’Connor and Marion O’Connor were passengers on the cruise ship *Victoria*, owned and controlled by Chandris Lines, Inc.
- The O’Connors were assigned to cabin E-57 and were its only occupants.
- The cabin contained two wooden bunk beds arranged one above the other.
- Kevin slept in the upper bunk and weighed about 210–215 pounds; Marion slept in the lower bunk.
- On the third night of the voyage, while both passengers were asleep and the sea was calm, the upper bunk suddenly broke from its mounting and fell onto Marion.
- Marion claimed injuries to her head, chest, arm, and leg.
- Marion brought a negligence action against Chandris Lines in federal court in Massachusetts.
- Chandris Lines sought dismissal based on a forum-selection clause printed in its passenger ticket that required suit to be brought in a foreign forum (Greece).
- The dispute before the district court focused on whether the ticket provided passengers fair notice of the forum clause and whether enforcing it against an injured passenger would be proper.

## Issues

1. Whether the passenger ticket’s forum-selection clause requiring litigation in Greece was enforceable against the injured passenger under maritime law.
2. If enforceable, whether the clause required dismissal of the Massachusetts action in favor of the designated foreign forum.

## Decision

- The court denied Chandris Lines’ motion to dismiss.
- The court treated the passenger ticket as a form contract and examined whether the carrier reasonably communicated the forum-selection clause to the passenger.
- The court concluded the clause was not enforced under the circumstances because the ticket did not provide sufficient, fair notice to bind the passenger to litigation in the foreign forum.
- The court distinguished *The Bremen v. Zapata Off-Shore Co.* on the ground that *The Bremen* involved a negotiated commercial agreement between sophisticated parties, not a passenger ticket presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
- Because the forum-selection clause was not enforced, the case could proceed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts; the court did not decide the underlying negligence claim at this stage.

## Legal Principles

- In maritime passenger cases, a carrier may rely on ticket terms limiting a passenger’s rights (including forum-selection clauses) only if the carrier provides passengers reasonable notice of those terms.
- Whether notice is sufficient depends on the overall presentation of the clause and whether the ticket’s format and timing give the passenger a fair chance to learn of the term before travel.
- Forum-selection clauses are not automatically enforced in passenger ticket contracts; courts closely examine consent-related considerations because such tickets are typically non-negotiated form agreements.
- Although forum-selection clauses are generally favored in commercial maritime contracts under *The Bremen*, enforcement may be denied when the clause is not fairly communicated or when enforcement would be unreasonable or unjust in the passenger-injury setting.
- A failed attempt to enforce a forum-selection clause results in denial of dismissal on that ground, leaving the court to address the merits in later proceedings.

## Conclusion

The district court refused to dismiss Marion O’Connor’s Massachusetts negligence suit against Chandris Lines because the cruise ticket’s Greece forum-selection clause was not treated as binding under the circumstances, so the action could continue in the District of Massachusetts notwithstanding the clause.


O'Connor v. Chandris Lines, Inc., 566 F. Supp. 1275 (1983)