Milanovich v. Costa Crociere, S.p.A.

District of Columbia residents Gregory Milanovich and Marjorie Koch-Milanovich (plaintiffs) sued Italian cruise line Costa Crociere, S.p.A. and New York corporation Costa Cruises, Inc. (Costa Cruises) (defendants) to recover for personal injuries Milanovich suffered during a week-long Caribbean cruise when the deck chair Milanovich was occupying collapsed. The Milanoviches filed suit in District of Columbia district court one year and 53 days after the incident occurred, and Costa Cruises promptly moved for summary judgment on the grounds that the Milanoviches were barred from filing suit by a provision of their passage ticket that set a one-year time limit on personal-injury actions, beginning on the date the injury was incurred. The Milanoviches opposed summary judgment on the grounds that the passage ticket also included a choice-of-law clause that imposed Italian law over the ticket, and Italian law prohibited certain liability-limiting provisions in adhesion contracts unless the non-drafting party provided written consent to the provisions. Both the Milanoviches and Costa Cruises assumed that American contract principles controlled the analysis of the issues. The district court granted Costa Cruises’ motion for summary judgment, applied United States law because of the preponderance of United States contacts to the case, and ruled that the Milanoviches’ claim was time-barred by the contractual provision limiting personal-injury claims to one year after the injury. The Milanoviches appealed.