The plaintiff embarked in the Netherlands on a 14-day cruise aboard a ship owned/operated by Celebrity Cruises Inc (Celebrity). The cruise did not call on any US ports. The plaintiff was injured disembarking in St Petersburg, Russia, and sued Celebrity two years after the incident. Her ticket/contract of passage expressly provided a one-year limitation period for personal injury claims; but also separately incorporated by reference the monetary limitations of liability available under the Athens Convention 1974.

Celebrity moved to dismiss the claims as time-barred under the one-year limitation period in the contract. The plaintiff argued that: (1) the two-year limitation period in the Athens Convention 1974 should be deemed applicable (notwithstanding the separate and express one-year period stated in the contract of passage) because a reasonable and prudent passenger would expect the incorporation of the Athens Convention monetary limits to include the Convention’s two-year limitation period; and (2) 46 USC § 30508(b)(2) (which prohibits contractual limitation periods of less than one year for passenger cruises calling on US ports) must be read together with the general three-year limitation period of 46 USC § 30506 such that even for non-US cruises, any contractual limitation period of less than three years is invalid.

Held: Claim dismissed. The Court rejected both of the plaintiff's arguments, holding that: (1) the incorporation of the Athens Convention 1974 was solely as to limits of liability, and solely for the benefit of Celebrity; and (2) neither § 30508 nor § 30506 was applicable to a cruise that did not call on any US port. The Court likewise held that the one-year time limitation provision in the ticket/contract of passage adequately brought the contractual limitation to the plaintiff's attention.

[For the unsuccessful appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, see Farris v Celebrity Cruises Inc (CMI795).]