California Superior Court Judge VanderWall recently ruled that a travel agent is merely a broker for the cruise line and the written contract is between the passenger and the cruise line and not the travel agent. Passenger, Elzbieta Jarrett, sued The Cruise Company of Modesto, California stating that it should have done more than merely advising them of the visa requirement. Canadian Consulates in Seattle and Poland advised the passengers that they would not need a Polish visa if they did not get off the ship. The Cruise Company provided Holland America’s visa requirements to the passenger and advised them to go to Seattle a day earlier to obtain a visa.

This decision arises out of an earlier small claims court decision which had awarded $7,500 to the passenger stating that the travel agent should have done more than just provide the notice that a visa was required in order to board the ship. In the Small Claims case, Holland America, who has four sales reps in the California area, argued by letter that they were not doing business in California and refused to support the travel agent. The Small Claims Judge dismissed Holland America as a defendant and ordered the travel agent to pay the passenger.

The Cruise Company hired San Francisco attorney, Alexander Anolik, to appeal the verdict. Anolik, in a trial de novo (new trial), raised the two-year statute of limitations issue for the first time since the lawsuit had been filed 28 months after the cruise. Anolik argued that this was not a breach of a written contract between the agent and the passenger. If there was any course of action against the agent, it would have been in the form of negligence or tort meaning only a two-year statute of limitations rather than the four years for written contracts.

Superior Court Judge VanderWall agreed with Anolik that the cause of action against the travel agent should be dismissed.