Appeal by plaintiff from a small claims judgment of the Justice Court, Town of Fishkill, Dutchess County (H. Epstein, J.), entered February 25, 2004, dismissing the action.

Judgment unanimously affirmed without costs.

In this small claims action, plaintiff seeks to recover damages for breach of contract. Plaintiff purchased an air/sea package from defendant travel agency for travel on a cruise operated by Celebrity Cruises. Celebrity Cruises was responsible for arranging his flight from New York to Puerto Rico so that he could board the ship before it set sail at 11:00 P.M. Although Celebrity Cruises advised plaintiff that he could board the ship as early as 2:00 P.M., it scheduled him for a flight which departed New York at 12:30 P.M. As a result, plaintiff was unable to board the ship until 6:45 P.M. Plaintiff commenced this action to recover damages for the time which he could have been aboard the ship if defendant travel agency had ensured that he was assigned a flight which arrived in Puerto Rico earlier. The court below found that Celebrity Cruises, rather than defendant, had ultimate control over which flight was booked for plaintiff as part of its air/sea package. Defendant's witness testified that this fact was initially explained to plaintiff and that it had requested an earlier flight from Celebrity Cruises to no avail. A review of the record establishes that in finding in favor of defendant, substantial justice was done between the parties according to the rules and principles of substantive law and therefore the judgment should be affirmed (see UJCA 1807; Moses v Randolph, 236 AD2d 706, 707 [1997]).
Decision Date: March 23, 2005