Legal Niches

Court dismisses passenger price-fixing case on subject matter jurisdiction grounds

Posted on November 02, 2009
McLafferty v. Deutsche Lufthansa A.G. et al. (E.D. Pa. Oct. 16, 2009).  In her class action complaint, the plaintiff alleged that Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and Alitalia had engaged in price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act.  She alleged that, at a 2003 IATA meeting, the airlines agreed to impose surcharges on fares for passenger [...

Massachusetts judges part ways on scope of ADA preemption in skycap tips cases

Posted on August 16, 2009
Travers v. JetBlue Airways Corporation (D. Mass. July 23, 2009).  According to the plaintiff skycaps, JetBlue diverted tip revenue to itself by imposing a $2 fee for each bag checked by a passenger at the curbside.  The skycaps claimed that their compensation, most of which took the form of tips, had decreased substantially because few [...

Plaintiff avoids preemptive effect of Montreal Convention by court?s holding that claims are for non-performance, not delay

Posted on July 29, 2009
Mullaney v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. (S.D.N.Y. June 3, 2009).  According to the plaintiff, Delta canceled his return flight from Paris to New York due to a strike by employees of Air France (Delta?s codeshare partner) and breached its written promise to reimburse customers who booked substitute flights on other airlines...

Legacy carriers battle over New York sales employee

Posted on June 16, 2009
American Airlines, Inc. v. Imhof and Delta Airlines, Inc. (S.D.N.Y. June 3, 2009).  After 22 years as an American employee, the managing director of the airline?s New York Sales Division resigned to accept a similar job with Delta.  During the weeks before he resigned, he copied various documents relating to American?s business, including a PowerPoint [...

To access blog feed reader register for free. (You will also learn about new ways to read and access the freshest law blogs.)

Passenger?s second visit to Fifth Circuit yields additional baggage damages but no attorneys? fees

Posted on May 31, 2009
Muoneke v. Compagnie Nationale Air France (5th Cir. Tex. May 12, 2009).  In 2004, the passenger traveled from Texas to Nigeria on Air France?s flights.  During a change of aircraft in Paris, Air France personnel required that the passenger check the baggage she had carried onto the prior flight...

Airline passenger ?Bill of Rights? legislation resurrected

Posted on April 26, 2009
On January 12, 2009, Senator Barbara Boxer reintroduced the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights Act with co-sponsor Senator Olympia Snowe.  Senator Boxer had introduced a similar bill in 2007, with Senator Snowe as its co-sponsor, but it was not enacted...

Appeals court upholds temporary injunction against frequent flyer mileage brokers

Posted on March 08, 2009
Frequent Flyer Depot, Inc., George Pirkle and Robert Pirkle v. American Airlines, Inc. (Tex. Ct. App. Feb. 26, 2009).  American?s AAdvantage frequent flyer program prohibits the purchase or sale of the program?s mileage credit or award tickets and makes such mileage or tickets void if transferred for cash or other consideration...

Court analyzes definition of ?international carriage? under Montreal Convention

Posted on February 28, 2009

Court?s narrow view of Montreal Convention preemption results in remand to state court

Posted on January 31, 2009
Narkiewicz-Laine v. Scandinavian Airlines Systems (N.D. Ill. Sept. 12, 2008).  In his state court complaint, the passenger claimed that (i) the airline?s delay of a certain international flight in March 2008 caused him to miss his connecting flight, and (ii) the airline refused to refund his ticket for an international flight scheduled for June 2006, [...

Court requires airline to disclose passenger contact information, but not employee contact information, in refusal to transport case

Posted on December 28, 2008
Nathaniel v. American Airlines (D. Virgin Islands Nov. 20, 2008).  According to the passenger, airline personnel forced her off the aircraft before the domestic flight and refused to transport her because they had determined ?she was too fat? and represented a safety ?hazard...

Court rules that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction in case against Spanish airline involving passenger in-flight death

Posted on November 02, 2008
Aikpitanhi v. Iberia Airlines of Spain (E.D. Mich. Mar. 31, 2008).  The plaintiffs? son died during an Iberia flight from Spain to Nigeria in 2007 while being deported.  The plaintiffs sued Iberia, alleging that Spanish law enforcement agents, by their conduct before and during the flight, caused the death of their son and that airline [...

Court holds that airline met applicable standard of care in disabled passenger slip and fall case

Posted on October 25, 2008
Elassaad v. Independence Air, Inc. (E.D. Pa. Aug. 20, 2008).  After a domestic flight, the passenger ?fell down the airplane?s stairway? while disembarking from the aircraft.  At the time of the fall, the passenger ?had an above-the-knee amputation of his right leg and relied on two crutches to walk? but did not use a wheelchair...

Virginia ruling returns to haunt ARC?s collection efforts against agency owner in California

Posted on September 21, 2008
Airlines Reporting Corporation v. Commercial Travel Corporation (S.D. Cal. Aug. 1, 2008).  In 2004, ARC was pursuing two separate lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in which Mario Renda was a defendant, ARC v. Uniglobe Fairway Travel, Inc...

ATPCO not liable to Alitalia for fare coding mistake

Posted on September 09, 2008
Alitalia Linee Aeree Italiane, S.p.A. v. Airline Tariff Publishing Company (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 5, 2008).  ATPCO serves airlines by collecting and distributing their fare data.  Over 500 airlines throughout the world send fare data to ATPCO, which electronically distributes such data to global distribution systems (such as Sabre, Amadeus/System One, Worldspan and Galileo) and computer reservation [...

Passenger ground delay case is trimmed but survives

Posted on September 01, 2008
Ray v. American Airlines, Inc. (W.D. Ark. Aug. 22, 2008).  The passenger?s December 2007 flight on American from Oakland to Dallas was diverted to Austin due to weather conditions.  The passenger claims that she was confined to the aircraft in Austin against her will and that she endured ?deplorable conditions? during the 11-hour ground delay...

Passenger unable to break Montreal Convention baggage liability limit

Posted on July 27, 2008
Bassam v. American Airlines (5th Cir. (La.) July 14, 2008).  Four months after her international flight, American Airlines delivered the passenger?s missing baggage to her.  The passenger claimed that items were missing from the baggage, and she sued the airline in state court for over $5,000 for the value of the missing items...

Hanson v. America West Airlines, Inc.

Posted on June 30, 2008
Hanson v. America West Airlines, Inc. (C.D. Cal. Mar. 29, 2008).

Airline battles frequent flyer mileage brokers in federal court

Posted on May 26, 2008
Alaska Airlines, Inc. v. Carey (W.D. Wash. Apr. 15, 2008).  The terms and conditions Alaska Airlines? frequent flyer program, known as the Mileage Plan, prohibit its members from selling, purchasing or bartering miles or award tickets, and they state that miles and award tickets ?are void if transferred for cash or other consideration...

Court holds that no implied ACAA private right of action exists

Posted on May 09, 2008
Wright v. American Airlines, Inc. (E.D. Mo. Mar. 3, 2008).  The plaintiff filed suit for herself and her minor son against American, alleging that her son was injured because he was denied accommodations for his disability, osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as ?Brittle Bone Disease,? while traveling on American?s flights...

Court rules on summary judgment motions in charter flights class action

Posted on April 28, 2008
In re Nigeria Charter Flights Contract Litigation (E.D.N.Y. Oct. 25, 2007).  In 2002, World Airways, Inc. and Ritetime Aviation and Travel Services, Inc. entered into a charter aircraft services agreement under which World agreed to supply Ritetime with round-trip flights between points in the U...

Court declines to dismiss complaint in passenger heart attack case

Posted on April 15, 2008
Watts v. American Airlines, Inc. (S.D. Ind. Oct. 10, 2007).  During a flight from Japan to Chicago in 2005, the passenger had a heart attack and died in a lavatory.  He was discovered by cleaning personnel after the aircraft had landed. The plaintiff, the passenger?s wife, filed a lawsuit against American...

Second Circuit grounds New York?s airline passenger ?Bill of Rights?

Posted on April 09, 2008
Air Transport Association of America, Inc. v. Andrew Cuomo (2d Cir. (N.Y.) Mar. 25, 2008).  New York?s airline passenger ?Bill of Rights? required that airlines provide passengers with food, water, electricity and working restrooms during ground delays over three hours...

Montreal Convention inapplicable where injured passenger unable to prove that airline regarded multi-airline carriage as ?single operation?

Posted on February 27, 2008
Kruger v. United Air Lines, Inc. (N.D. Cal. Nov. 1, 2007).  While waiting on a jetway to board a flight from San Francisco to Seattle, the passenger was inadvertently struck on the head by a backpack swung by another boarding passenger.  The passenger was able to board but became ?dazed and nauseated? during the flight [...

Airline obtains reversal of passenger jury verdict in refusal to transport case

Posted on February 11, 2008
Cerqueira v. American Airlines, Inc. (1st Cir. (Mass.) Jan. 10, 2008).  As previously reported, in December 2003, American Airlines removed three passengers, a man of Portuguese national origin and two Israelis seated nearby, from an aircraft at the departure gate in Boston for questioning by state police officers...

Court partially grants airline motion to dismiss injured passenger?s complaint

Posted on January 28, 2008
Levy v. Continental Airlines, Inc. (E.D. Pa. Oct. 1, 2007).  During a flight from Houston to Philadelphia, the passenger was injured when a large ceramic bowl fell from a broken or improperly closed overhead compartment and struck her head.  The passenger filed a lawsuit against the airline, alleging that it had negligently violated duties of [...

Travel agents come up short in commission cap antitrust case against airlines

Posted on January 09, 2008
In re Travel Agent Commission Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Ohio Oct. 29, 2007).  The travel agent plaintiffs alleged in this case that the airline defendants had violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. § 1) by conspiring to cap or eliminate travel agent commissions at certain times during the period from 1995 to 2002...

Warsaw Convention preempts passenger tort claim against airline

Posted on December 24, 2007
Small v. America West Airlines, Inc. (D.N.J. Oct. 30, 2007).  The passenger alleged that the airline was liable under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act because it had tortiously denied losing his baggage, thereby preventing him from filing a claim against his insurance company...

Federal court upholds legality of New York?s airline passenger ?Bill of Rights?

Posted on December 20, 2007
Air Transport Association of America, Inc. v. Andrew Cuomo et al. (N.D.N.Y. Dec. 20, 2007).  In a decision issued yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York denied the Air Transport Association?s motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of New York?s airline passenger ?Bill of Rights...

Federal court to rule soon on legality of New York?s airline passenger ?Bill of Rights?

Posted on December 12, 2007
Air Transport Association of America, Inc. v. Andrew Cuomo et al. (N.D.N.Y.).  On December 18, 2007, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York will hold a hearing on the Air Transport Association?s motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of New York?s airline passenger ?Bill of Rights...

ARC seeks court confirmation of arbitration award against agency

Posted on November 30, 2007
Airlines Reporting Corporation v. Versailles, LLC (E.D. Va. Nov. 26, 2007).  ARC has filed a petition seeking the confirmation of an arbitration award in its favor against Versailles, LLC, a travel agency that does business as Business Travel International and is located in Irvine, California...

Magistrate judge recommends that ARC obtain default judgment against agency and owner

Posted on October 20, 2007
Airlines Reporting Corporation v. PVO Travel Corp. and Pete Victor Obuljen (E.D. Va. Sept. 27, 2007).  As previously reported, ARC filed a lawsuit against PVO and Obuljen, the agency?s sole owner, for unreported sales and dishonored drafts.  The defendants failed to respond to the complaint, so ARC moved for a default judgment...

Fifth Circuit vacates summary judgment against passenger in baggage case

Posted on September 30, 2007
Muoneke v. Air France (5th Cir. Tex. Sept. 17, 2007).  The day after her flight from Texas arrived in Nigeria, the passenger went to the airline?s lost baggage office at the airport and claimed that several items were missing from her checked baggage...

Court enforces two year limit in baggage case

Posted on September 27, 2007
Onyekuru v. Northwest Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (N.D. Ill. Sept. 14, 2007).  In August 2006, the passenger filed a lawsuit against the airlines seeking damages for the alleged theft of items from the baggage she had checked for her June 2004 flight from Nigeria to Chicago...

Passenger?s seating decision dooms her personal injury lawsuit

Posted on September 23, 2007
Zarlin v. Air France (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 6, 2007).  A flight attendant reseated the passenger during an international flight after she complained that the passenger in front of her had deliberately reclined his seat so that it touched her.  Without informing a flight attendant, the passenger returned to her original seat because the alternative seat was [...

Southwest persuades court to shut down boarding pass company?s operations

Posted on September 17, 2007
Southwest Airlines Co. v. BoardFirst, L.L.C. (N.D. Tex. Sept. 12, 2007).  BoardFirst went into business in 2005 to assist Southwest passengers in obtaining the coveted ?A? group boarding passes.  ?A? boarding passes are obtained by the first 45 passengers to check in, and ?A? passengers are the first to board the aircraft...