A Carnival Cruise employee’s slip on a wet floor while working moved from Miami court to the Philippines under Panamanian law, due to an arbitration clause in his employment contract. Mauricio Gomm dos Santos and Quinn Smith of Smith International Legal Services (now GST LLP), wrote that “arguably, if the choice of law deprives a party of a federal claim, then the mere existence of the claim may create a non-arbitrable issue as a matter of public policy.” In this case, the Eleventh Circuit Court found that an arbitration clause in a contract between a seaman and a cruise ship couldn’t be applied, because its choice of a foreign seat and a foreign governing law would deprive the individual of a US statutory right. It was also found that the employee had recently signed a new contract without an arbitration clause.