9TH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS ISSUES DECISION IN NEGLIGENCE AND COMMON CARRIER LIABILITY CASE AGAINST UNITED
July 15, 2022
On June 15, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (hereinafter the “Court”) issued a ruling affirming the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to grant summary judgment in favor of United Airlines (“United”) in a negligence and state-law common carrier liability suit brought by a former passenger.
As background, the plaintiff-appellant claimed that United was negligent for failing to “properly warn” her and other passengers onboard a United flight of “known, expected dangerous conditions” and failing to keep passengers safe when the aircraft experienced turbulence. The plaintiff-appellant also argued that United owed a duty to its passengers to keep them in the “highest possible degree of safety.” The Appellate Court found that the District Court did apply the correct careless or reckless standard in considering the plaintiff’s negligence claim. The Appellate Court also found that the plaintiff had failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact regarding any alleged violation of a Federal Aviation Regulation (“FAR”), and that the plaintiff-appellant’s state law claim regarding common carrier liability was preempted by the FAA’s regulations. The Court held that the Federal Aviation Act and FARs, set the standard of care for negligence claims asserted against air carriers by prescribing that they cannot operate an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner that would endanger life or property, but that neither the Act nor the FARs require airlines to provide service to the public at the “highest possible degree of safety.”
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