Opinion
No. 15-11766
08-29-2016
FRANCIS D'CRUZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NCL (BAHAMAS) LTD., Defendant-Appellee.
[DO NOT PUBLISH] D.C. Docket No. 1:15-cv-20240-JLK Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida Before WILLIAM PRYOR and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges, and STORY, District Judge. PER CURIAM:
Honorable Richard W. Story, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, sitting by designation. --------
The only issue in this appeal is whether a seaman's work in international waters on a cruise ship that calls on foreign ports constitutes "performance . . . abroad" under the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 9 U.S.C. § 202. That issue is controlled by recent binding precedent. See Alberts v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., No. 15-14775 (11th Cir. Aug. 23, 2016). We held in Alberts that "performance abroad includes a seaman's work traveling to or from a foreign country." Id. at 4. D'Cruz's contract envisioned performance abroad because he worked on a cruise ship that traveled in international waters to ports in Honduras, Belize, and Mexico. Because his contract envisaged performance abroad, the arbitration clause is enforceable under the Convention. See id. at 7.
We AFFIRM the order compelling arbitration.