[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 22-11324 ____________________

MAURICIO USME, LUKASZ ZUTEREK, CAROLINA VASQUEZ, JAVIER PEREZ, JOHAN ORTIZ, LUZ GAVILAN, MARVIN PAZ, Plaintiffs-Appellants, versus CMI LEISURE MANAGEMENT, INC., CRUISE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL, INC., VIKAND MEDICAL SOLUTIONS, LLC, USCA11 Case: 22-11324 Document: 31-1 Date Filed: 06/28/2024 Page: 2 of 20

2 Opinion of the Court 22-11324

Defendants-Appellees.

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 1:21-cv-21191-DPG ____________________

Before JORDAN, LAGOA, and MARCUS, Circuit Judges. JORDAN, Circuit Judge: In March of 2020, the M/V Greg Mortimer set off on a cruise to the Antarctic but sailed head on into the COVID-19 storm. Seven of its crewmembers later filed suit against a number of com- panies in the Southern District of Florida, alleging that the pan- demic exposed them to foreseeable harms, and that as a result of the ship’s decision to sail, six of them were afflicted with the virus. These crewmembers, however, had signed employment agreements with other companies containing forum-selection and choice-of-law clauses requiring many disputes to be brought in the Bahamas—the flag jurisdiction of the Greg Mortimer—under Baha- mian law. Based on that forum-selection clause, the district court dismissed the action for forum non conveniens. Following a review of the record, and with the benefit of oral argument, we vacate and remand. The defendants whom the crewmembers sued were not parties to the employment USCA11 Case: 22-11324 Document: 31-1 Date Filed: 06/28/2024 Page: 3 of 20

22-11324 Opinion of the Court 3

agreements, and on the record before us they cannot invoke the forum-selection clause in those agreements. I In reviewing an order dismissing a case for forum non conven- iens, we accept as true the factual allegations in the complaint to the extent they are uncontroverted by affidavits or other evidence. See Otto Candies, LLC v. Citigroup, Inc., 963 F.3d 1331, 1336 (11th Cir. 2020). And we draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the plain- tiffs. See id. Unless otherwise noted, the following facts are taken from the crewmembers’ amended complaint and have not been contested by affidavits or other evidence. A In what now seems like a bad dream, the spring of 2020 saw the world stand still as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Greg Mortimer, however, was scheduled to set sail from Ushuaia, Argentina, to the Antarctic on March 15, 2020. Just one day earlier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had issued a “No Sail Order” applicable to cruise ships subject to the jurisdiction of the United States with a capacity of 250 or more passengers or crew operating in international waters. This “No Sail Order” was issued after about two months of previous g