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.

The lower Court rejected both of the plaintiff's arguments: see Farris v Celebrity Cruises Inc (CMI794). The plaintiff appealed.

Held: The Eleventh Circuit affirmed on all grounds, holding that although the ticket incorporated the Athens Convention 1974, it did so solely for the benefit of Celebrity; and further, 'although that treaty establishes a two-year limitations period for personal injuries … the ticket does not incorporate that limitations period' and instead 'establishes a one-year limitation period "NOTWITHSTANDING ANY PROVISION OF LAW OF ANY STATE OR COUNTRY TO THE CONTRARY."'