Summary
holding defendants, who operated a boat tour in the Bahamas for which tickets are sold by Florida-based cruise lines on board their vessels, did not have the level of business in Florida to confer jurisdiction under section 48.193
Summary of this case from Trustees of Columbia v. Ocean WorldOpinion
No. 98-1285
February 3, 1999.
Appeal from the Circuit Court, Dade County, Fredricka G. Smith, Judge.
Moseley, Warren, Prichard Parrish and Robert E. Warren and Kimberly Held Israel (Jacksonville), for appellants.
Thornton, Davis Murray and Holly S. Harvey, for appellee.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and NESBITT and SHEVIN, JJ.
In our view, there is nothing in the Florida activities of the appellants, the operators of a boat tour in the Bahamas for which tickets are sold by Florida-based cruise lines on board their vessels, which justifies subjecting them to Florida jurisdiction in an action for the drowning of a Carnival Cruise line passenger while on the tour at Paradise Island. Specifically, neither section 48.193(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1997), see Walt Disney World Co. v. Diaz, 691 So.2d 1150 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997); see also State v. American Tobacco Co., 707 So.2d 851, 854-55 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998); compare Universal Caribbean Establishment v. Bard, 543 So.2d 447 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989), nor section 48.193(2), Florida Statutes (1997), see Spanier v. Suisse-Outremer Reederei A.G., 557 So.2d 83 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990); Ranger Nationwide, Inc. v. Cook, 519 So.2d 1087 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988), review denied, 531 So.2d 167 (Fla. 1988), applies. Therefore, the order below denying the appellants' motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction is reversed.