TREATY PREEMPTS DOWNGRADED AIR TRAVELER’S CLAIMS

July 17, 2016

On April 18, 2016, a federal court in California ruled against an 86-year-old claimant who brought suit after he accepted a downgrade (instead of taking a later flight) and was allegedly injured on board. The passenger had purchased two first class roundtrip tickets from Los Angeles, California to Tel Aviv, Israel, with a layover in Newark, New Jersey. Although the Plaintiff and a companion travelled first class from Los Angeles to Newark without incident, the two passengers were downgraded to Premium Economy on the Newark-Tel Aviv portion of the itinerary due to an insufficient number of BusinessFirst seats. The court found that the passenger’s claims that the airline’s failure to accommodate his request for priority seating due to a pre-existing medical condition and for injuries incurred on board were preempted by the Montreal Convention, which exclusively limits recovery for passengers travelling on international itineraries for damages arising from international flights. As a result, the passenger was precluded from bringing additional breach of contract claims under local law.

Furthermore, the court held that the carrier’s failure to accommodate the passenger’s request for priority seating due to his pre-existing medical condition did not constitute an “accident” under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention allowing for the award of damages. Additionally, the exacerbation of the passenger’s edema was found not to be an “accident” under Article 17, because swelling in one’s legs and feet is a common physiological reaction to inactivity in a seated position during lengthy international air travel.

If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6665).

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