By Daily Press staff
A howling hurricane that ruined a local man’s dream of a singles’ vacation in Jamaica doesn’t entitle him to a refund, a judge ruled earlier this week.
The ruling rebuffed claims by Lewis Wexper, a British man living in West Los Angeles, that he was entitled to a refund of $2,557 from Marina Del Rey-based Marina Travel and packager Happy Vacations.
In Santa Monica Small Claims Court on Wednesday, Commissioner Roberta Kyman didn’t offer any reasoning behind her decision. But the case included no evidence that a refund would be provided in case of bad weather. Wexper’s bid was apparently doomed because, although he cut the trip short by a couple of days, he took it.
Wexper offered a laundry list of complaints about his ruined vacation, including a bumpy flight, dark room and lack of activities. But his chief complaint was a hurricane — more exactly, a “Caribbean tropical storm system,” which hit the “Hedonism Three” resort three days into his 10-day trip.
“I had a beautiful vacation for two or three days,” Wexper confessed to Kyman. Damaging his case, he said he left the resort early because of food poisoning, as well as the torrential downpour.
Marina Travel’s Lonnie Levine noted the summer season selected by Wexper for his vacation is well-known as hurricane season in the Caribbean and that the resort did its best, through vouchers, to offer visitors make-up days (not including airfare) for washed-out moments.
Wexper said he would not have used any of the “Return to Paradise” vouchers because he had an unpleasant memory of “Hedonism Three.”
The promotion, wholesaled by Happy Vacations, is designed for singles who like to mingle in resorts such as Jamaica’s, which have some areas reserved for nudity. Wexper selected Jamaica because he wanted to avoid the “screaming kids” he was advised might be hanging around Cancun, another choice resort.
“When it rains over there, it rains very heavily,” Wexper noted, narrating a scene in which sandbags appeared. He said the resort replaced his non-oceanfront room with another with a better view upon his complaint. But there was little the resort could do about the rain.
Absent a refund guarantee, Kyman’s ruling suggests, bad weather is an unfortunate risk of a summer sojourn to the Caribbean. As under airline rules, the ruling also suggests that Wexper’s case was doomed the moment he decided to take the trip, which included a pre-packaged airline ticket and resort stay.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 29, 2003. Read the original PDF.