Carmouche v. Carnival Corp., No. 14-14325 (11th Cir. June 15, 2015).
Tamborlee Management, Inc., is a Panama corporation that provides shore excursions for tourists in Belize. After cruise ship passenger Tawana Carmouche was injured during a shore excursion operated by Tamborlee in Belize, she sued Tamborlee for negligence in the Southern District of Florida. Tamborlee moved to dismiss Carmouche’s complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction, and the district court granted the motion after allowing the parties to take jurisdictional discovery. Ms. Carmouche appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal.
Tamborlee has never operated a shore excursion in Florida, advertised to potential customers in Florida, or been incorporated or licensed to do business in Florida. Tamborlee’s connections with Florida include insurance policies with several Florida companies, a bank account with Citibank handled by a department in Miami, and membership in the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (“FCCA”). In 2005, Tamborlee contracted with Carnival Corporation to provide shore excursions for Carnival passengers in Belize. The initial contract between Tamborlee and Carnival provided that “[Tamborlee] consents to the personal jurisdiction over it and to the venue of the courts serving the Southern District of Florida in the event of any lawsuit to which CARNIVAL is a party and which is related to, in connection with, arising from or involving the Shore Excursion or the terms of this Agreement.”
The appellate court found that Tamborlee’s connections with Florida are not so continuous and systematic as to render it essentially at home in Florida. The court noted that even accepting all of Carmouche’s allegations as true, Tamborlee’s connections with Florida are limited to having a Florida bank account and two Florida addresses, one of which is a post-office box, purchasing insurance from Florida companies, filing a financing statement with the Florida Secretary of State, joining a non-profit trade organization based in Florida (i.e., FCCA), and consenting to the jurisdiction of the Southern District of Florida for all lawsuits arising out of its agreements with Carnival. The court held that these connections are not so substantial as to make this an exceptional case in which a foreign corporation is found at home in a forum other than its place of incorporation or principal place of business.
The case is significant because: (1) it is the first published decision out of the Eleventh Circuit regarding cruise line tour operator jurisdiction and (2) it is the first decision of the Eleventh Circuit interpreting and applying the most recent and seminal decision of the Supreme Court on personal jurisdiction, Daimler AG v. Bauman