Opinion ID: 745452
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Society's Liability

Text: 10 We have long recognized that the carrier-passenger relationship, as established in the contract of carriage, yields significant legal consequences. We have held that  'by the sale of the ticket there [arises] a contractual relationship between the company and the passenger, to which relationship the law by its own force annexe[s] certain implied obligations and duties.'  Morton v. De Oliveira, 984 F.2d 289, 290 (9th Cir.1993) (quoting Pacific S.S. Co. v. Sutton, 7 F.2d 579, 580 (9th Cir.1925)). 11 The contract of carriage imposes a duty on the carrier to transport passengers safely, see id., and to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances of each case. See Kermarec v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 358 U.S. 625, 632, 79 S.Ct. 406, 410, 3 L.Ed.2d 550 (1959); Keefe v. Bahama Cruise Line, Inc., 867 F.2d 1318, 1321 (11th Cir.1989). We have held that in discharging this duty of reasonable care, a carrier of passengers must maintain a reasonable, safe means for a passenger to disembark and must render such services as are reasonably necessary to get a passenger safely ashore. Marshall v. Westfal-Larsen & Co., 259 F.2d 575, 577 (9th Cir.1958). 12 Although these cases generally involve defendants who are both the shipowner and the carrier, the principles of carrier liability are not limited to shipowners. Because the carrier's duties are born from the contractual relationship with the passenger, they apply with equal force to non-owners. See Stanga v. McCormick Shipping Corp., 268 F.2d 544, 551 (5th Cir.1959) ([I]t is the contract of carriage as a water-borne passenger which gives rise to the high degree of care exacted of a carrier of passengers....). Thus, if, as the district court found, Society held itself out and conducted itself as a carrier of passengers, it owed the Chans a duty to transport them safely from the cruise ship to shore. 13 We find ample support in the record for the district court's finding that Society represented itself as a carrier and assumed the duties of a carrier for the Chans' cruise. First, the charter agreement entered into between Adventurer, the shipowner, and Society provides that Society must issue to passengers the Owners' standard form of ticket as per Schedule II ... and shall embody the same in any contract of carriage with the passengers. The Schedule II form ticket describes the carrier's and the passenger's duties and responsibilities. The Contract of Carriage Society issued to passengers tracks the language of Schedule II almost identically, but substitutes the name Society for each instance of the term Carrier in Schedule II. 14 Second, Society is the only company mentioned by name in the contract of carriage, which constitutes the passenger's ticket. The contract of carriage defines the term Society to include the Ship, its owner, its operator or charterer, all affiliated companies and the sales representatives and all employees of such individuals and companies. This contract of carriage is the only document the passenger is required to sign with any party involved in the cruise. In issuing this contract of carriage in its own name, Society was holding itself out as the carrier and embodying its willingness to be seen by passengers as the carrier for purposes of this cruise. 15 Society contends that, despite this evidence, it acted merely as an agent for the other service providers involved in the Chans' cruise. Citing Lavine v. General Mills, Inc., 519 F.Supp. 332 (N.D.Ga.1981), and Weade v. Dichmann, Wright & Pugh, Inc., 337 U.S. 801, 69 S.Ct. 1326, 93 L.Ed. 1704 (1949), Society argues that its participation in the cruise was minimal and did not rise to the level of a carrier. These cases are distinguishable, however. Lavine involved a package tour to Australia and New Zealand arranged by the defendant which included a separate, optional cruise to Fiji on which the plaintiff was injured. See Lavine, 519 F.Supp. at 334. There was no evidence that the defendant travel agent signed a contract of carriage or represented itself as the carrier for the cruise, which included many passengers unrelated to the package tour and which was owned and operated by a separate cruise company. See id. While the Supreme Court held in Weade that an agent who issued tickets, maintained the vessel, arranged for the loading and unloading of passengers, directed advertising, provisioned the ship, and procured the crew was not a common carrier, see Weade, 337 U.S. at 805, 69 S.Ct. at 1328 the defendant signed the passenger ticket it issued explicitly as an agent and did not carry out the actual movement of ... passengers. See id. at 807-08, 69 S.Ct. at 1328-29. In contrast, Society represented itself as the carrier, not as an agent, on the passenger ticket it issued to the Chans. 16 Moreover, in addition to the ship's captain, Society directed and controlled the Zodiac boat landings for the Chans' cruise. Its travel brochure trumpeted its use of the swift, go-everywhere Zodiac landing craft that are The Key to Expedition Cruising. The tour materials issued by Society advertised the Zodiac's versatility and safety in the hands of Society's highly-skilled boatmen and described the Zodiacs as a unique feature of a Society Expeditions cruise. According to testimony presented to the district court, ornithologists, marine biologists, and nature experts hired by Society to lead expeditions on the islands also ferried passengers to shore in the Zodiacs. Members of Society's office staff selected Zodiac drivers based on resumes they received and ensured that drivers were trained to pilot the crafts. Expedition leaders, who are Society employees, conducted a safety briefing for passengers on Zodiac travel. 17 On the day of the accident involving the Chans, three Society employees, unaccompanied by any officers or members of the ship's crew, scouted out the sea conditions and landing site and established the landing route for the boats. Because Peter Harrison, a Society-employed ornithologist and Zodiac driver, was on shore leading a bird-watching talk, the expedition leader selected Tavita as an alternative driver from the ship's crew. All Zodiacs that transported passengers other than the one in which the Chans were sailing that day were piloted by Society employees. Furthermore, Society employees conducted the rescue operation when the Zodiac piloted by Tavita overturned. 18 Society contends that its disclaimer establishes its status as an agent and absolves it of all responsibility for personal injuries. Society points to the language in its travel brochure which states, [Society] acts only as an agent for the suppliers and contractors providing air or other transportation, and hotel, sightseeing and other shoreside services and assumes no responsibility however caused, for your personal injury, personal or property loss or damage in connection with any service. This language is not an effective general disclaimer of all liability for the cruise, however. First, the clause representing Society as an agent modifies the language describing shoreside services and sightseeing and the transportation and accommodations associated with those activities. Second, the force majeure clause that follows this sentence would be mere surplusage if the initial sentence were a general disclaimer of Society's responsibility for all aspects of the cruise. 19 Cruise passenger tickets are contracts of adhesion, and as such, ambiguities in them must be construed against the carrier. See Rams v. Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Inc., 17 F.3d 11, 12-13 (1st Cir.1994); Lousararian v. Royal Caribbean Corp., 951 F.2d 7, 8 (1st Cir.1991). Thus, we decline to interpret this ambiguous language as an effective general disclaimer of Society's liability. 20 Alternatively, Society argues that even if this term does not constitute a general disclaimer, the Zodiac trips were shore excursions for which it specifically disclaimed its liability through this same language in the travel brochure. Society's argument is essentially that even if it were a carrier, the Zodiac landings were outside its sphere of responsibility. 21 While the disclaimer may have effectively absolved Society of liability for true shoreside frolics, admiralty law has generally prohibited carriers from limiting their liability for transporting passengers from ship to shore. See 1 Martin J. Norris, The Law of Maritime Personal Injuries § 3:6, 3:16 at 66-67, 81-83 (4th ed.1990) (where a vessel cannot tie up to a dock and tenders or launches are used, carrier must maintain a reasonably safe means of transport from the vessel to shore). [C]ontract provision[s] relieving the carrier of liability to a cruise ship passenger for injuries occurring while in a tender or launch operating between the ship and shore are likely void as violations of public policy. Id. at 66-67. 22 We have held that there is a long-established rule that embarking and disembarking are a part of the voyage which the shipowner agrees to provide. Isham v. Pacific Far East Line, Inc., 476 F.2d 835, 836 (9th Cir.1973). Where a passenger or cruise vessel puts into numerous ports in the course of the cruise, these stopovers are the sine qua non of the cruise. In such a situation, the shipowner has a duty to exercise a high degree of care in seeing to the safe embarking and disembarking of the passengers. Id. at 837. Isham relied for this proposition on Lawlor v. Incres Nassau S.S. Line, Inc., 161 F.Supp. 764, 767 (D.Mass.1958), which aptly stated that 23 an attempt on the part of the carrier to ... limit himself to protecting the passenger only while he is on the vessel is repugnant to the essence of the voyage. One of the principal purposes of the trip is for the passenger to go ashore at Caribbean ports. It would never occur to the average passenger that the carrier was not undertaking any responsibility for landing him or bringing him back to the vessel. 24 Society's attempt to characterize the Zodiac landings as shore excursions thus fails. Society's own travel brochure characterizes Expedition Stops as an integral part of the cruise. If Society is liable for passenger injuries as a carrier, it is liable for injuries sustained during Zodiac transport from ship to shore. 25 Society's strongest argument is that it cannot be held liable because it was merely the time charterer for the cruise. In the context of injuries to crew members, we have noted that [u]nder traditional admiralty principles an injured seaman cannot sue a time charterer unless the seaman can show either the time charterer had enough control of the vessel to render it the owner pro hac vice or the time charterer was actively negligent. Alexander v. United States, 63 F.3d 820, 822 (9th Cir.1995) (citation omitted), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1188, 116 S.Ct. 1674, 134 L.Ed.2d 778 (1996). Society claims that because Adventurer, the shipowner, retained responsibility for operational and navigational decisions under the terms of the charter, Society did not have enough control to render it liable as an owner pro hac vice or a demise charterer. See Forrester v. Ocean Marine Indem. Co., 11 F.3d 1213, 1215 (5th Cir.1993) (In a demise charter, the vessel owner transfers full possession and control to the charterer.... Consequently, the ... demise charterer is the owner pro hac vice of the vessel for the duration of the contract.) 26 Society cannot, however, escape the duties imposed by its contractual relationship with the Chans by hiding behind its charter agreement with Adventurer. The cases Society cites analyzing the amount of control the charterer has ceded generally do not involve carriage of passengers. One exception is Stafford v. Intrav, Inc., 841 F.Supp. 284 (E.D.Mo.1993), aff'd, 16 F.3d 1228 (8th Cir.1994), in which the court held that a defendant who arranged a package tour including a cruise on Dutch inland waterways could not be held liable for the injuries of a tour participant who fell from a platform on the cruise ship. In contrast to this case, the Stafford court expressly held that the tour operator was not a common carrier and had not issued a contract of carriage. Id. at 287. Society's liability stems not from its role as charterer and the attendant liability admiralty law places on certain types of charterers, but from its role as carrier and the duties imposed on carriers by traditional contract principles. 27 Moreover, even a time charterer may be liable where it undertakes operating functions on the vessel or has a right or ability to control the actions of the crew. See Alexander, 63 F.3d at 822; Turner v. Japan Lines, Ltd., 651 F.2d 1300, 1304-06 (9th Cir.1981). Society's control over and active participation in the Zodiac landing operations establishes that, at least as to the landings, Society assumed a role greater than that of a traditional time charterer. 28 We conclude that, as the carrier for the Chans' cruise, Society owed a duty to transport the passengers with reasonable care from ship to shore. The defendants do not contest the district court's finding that Tavita's piloting of the Chans' Zodiac fell below that standard of care and was therefore negligent. Because Society was responsible for the movement of passengers to and from the ship, we affirm the district court's ruling that Society was liable for the injuries the Chans sustained in the Zodiac accident.