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

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.  The passenger claimed that when she arrived in Nigeria, cash and a camera were missing from her baggage.

The passenger sued Air France in a Texas state court.  Air France removed the case and successfully moved for summary judgment.   As previously reported, the Fifth Circuit reversed and remanded the case in 2007 because a factual issue precluded summary judgment.

On remand, the district court determined that the passenger’s actual loss totaled $1,242 but that the Warsaw Convention limited her recovery to $134.  The passenger then applied for an award of attorneys’ fees and costs but the district court held that fees are not recoverable under the Warsaw Convention.

In its opinion, the Fifth Circuit held that because the Montreal Convention had entered into force on November 4, 2003 and the events at issue had taken place in 2004, the Montreal Convention, not the Warsaw Convention, applied to the case.

Next, the appeals court rejected Air France’s argument that it had no liability to the passenger because its contract of carriage disclaimed liability for cash and cameras (and other valuable items) in checked baggage.  The court reasoned that the contract of carriage provision was inconsistent with Article 17 of the Montreal Convention, which subjected the airline to strict liability for baggage loss and damage (up to Article 22(2)’s limit of 1,000 Special Drawing Rights (“SDR”) per passenger).

The Fifth Circuit then held that Air France’s liability was capped at $1,580 under Article 22(2) of the Montreal Convention, which limits an airline’s liability for baggage loss, damage or delay to 1,000 SDRs per passenger (one SDR was equivalent to $1.58 at the time of the district court trial).  The appeals court then reversed the district court’s judgment and entered judgment for the passenger for $1,242, the amount of actual damages that the district court had determined that she had incurred.

Finally, the Fifth Circuit held that the passenger was not entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees but was entitled to recover her costs.  The court reasoned that, although the Montreal Convention does not prohibit the recovery of fees or costs, it does not provide an independent basis on which a court may award such amounts.  As to fees, the court held that they were not recoverable because the passenger had not identified any independent basis, such as a federal or state statute, for a fee award.  As to costs, the court held that they were recoverable under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d) and remanded the case to the district court for the sole purpose of calculating such costs (remarking that “[i]t is long past time for this litigation over $1,242.79 to end”).

Note:  The Fifth Circuit’s holding that the airline was liable for the loss of the cash and camera even though its contract of carriage purported to disclaim liability for these items is consistent with the “Guidance on Airline Baggage Liability and Responsibilities of Code-Share Partners Involving International Itineraries” that DOT issued on March 26, 2009.  The Guidance (which the Fifth Circuit did not cite) states as follows:  “Although carriers may wish to have tariff terms that prohibit passengers from including certain items in checked baggage, once a carrier accepts checked baggage, whatever is contained in the checked baggage is protected, subject to the terms of the [Montreal] Convention, up to the limit of 1000 SDRs (Convention, Article 22, para. 2).”  See 74 Fed. Reg. 14837-38 (Apr. 1, 2009).

Court denies passenger recovery against airline for loss of itinerant robot head

Hanson v. America West Airlines, Inc. (C.D. Cal. Mar. 29, 2008).  Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction or even science fiction.  The passenger in this case, a roboticist, sued the airline for the loss of “an artistically and scientifically valuable robotic head modeled after famous science fiction author Philip K. Dick.”  According to the court, “Dick’s well-known body of work has resulted in movies – such as Total Recall, Blade Runner, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, and a large group of admirers has grown following his death in Orange County, California, in 1982.”

The passenger was traveling from Texas to San Francisco with a connection in Las Vegas.  He lost his head by leaving it in an overhead compartment when he departed the aircraft in Las Vegas to catch his flight to San Francisco.  According to the passenger, the airline found the head and promised to deliver it to him San Francisco, but the head never showed up.  The passenger claimed that he and his head have never come face to face again.  As damages, the passenger sought the value of the head, which he put at $750,000.

The airline moved for summary judgment on the grounds that its contract of carriage, which provided that the airline “assumes no responsibility or liability for baggage, or other items, carried in the passenger compartment of the aircraft,” barred any recovery by the passenger.  The court agreed with the airline, rejecting the passenger’s arguments that (i) the airline materially deviated from the original contract of carriage, and (ii) the airline employee who promised the passenger that the head would be delivered to him in San Francisco had altered the original contract of carriage, causing the airline to become liable for the loss of the head.  The court also held that even if the airline employee had had the authority to alter the contract of carriage, the passenger had presented no evidence that the airline had breached the altered contract, pointing out that the airline “may have done everything as promised, only to fall victim to a head hunting thief or other skullduggery.”

Obviously having fun, and clearly unable to restrain himself, the judge concluded the opinion as follows:  “The Court must GRANT Defendant’s Motion.  But it does so hoping that the android head of Mr. Dick is someday found, perhaps in an Elysian field of Orange County, Dick’s homeland, choosing to dream of electric sheep.”

Fifth Circuit vacates summary judgment against passenger in baggage case

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.  The passenger alleged that she submitted a written claim regarding the missing items during her visit to the baggage office, but the airline alleged that it had no record of having received such claim.

The passenger filed a state court lawsuit against the airline, which removed the case to federal court.  The passenger moved that the case be remanded because the amount in controversy did not exceed $75,000.  The Fifth Circuit affirmed the trial court’s denial of the remand motion, holding that because the passenger’s complaint involved the interpretation and application of a treaty – the Warsaw Convention – the trial court had federal question jurisdiction, which has no dollar-amount requirement.

After the trial court denied the passenger’s remand motion, the airline moved for summary judgment on the grounds that the passenger had failed to submit a timely written claim under Article 26 of the Warsaw Convention and the airline’s contract of carriage, both of which required submission of a written claim within seven days of the passenger’s receipt of her baggage.  The Fifth Circuit vacated the trial court’s summary judgment for the airline, holding that the passenger’s submissions in opposition to the airline’s motion were sufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether she had submitted a written claim.

Note:  The Warsaw Convention and its successor, the Montreal Convention, impose time limits for submitting written claims for baggage and cargo damage and delay but not for loss.  However, neither Convention prohibits airlines from imposing their own time limits for submitting written loss claims (see, e.g., Khan v. Singapore Airlines, Ltd. (9th Cir. 1997)), and airlines typically impose such limits through their conditions of carriage.  Courts usually regard the delivery of baggage with some items missing, as occurred in the above case, as baggage damage rather than loss for purposes of Article 26.  See Maro Leather Co. v. Aerolineas Argentinas (N.Y.A.D. 1988).