Case C-589/20: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 2 June 2022 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Landesgericht Korneuburg — Austria) — JR v Austrian Airlines AG (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Air transport — Montreal Convention — Article 17(1) — Liability of air carriers for death or injury sustained by passengers — Concept of ‘accident’ causing death or injury — Bodily injury suffered during disembarkation — Article 20 — Exoneration of air carrier from liability — Concept of ‘damage suffered caused or contributed to by the negligence or other wrongful act or omission of that injured passenger’ — Fall of passenger not holding on to the handrail of a mobile disembarkation stairway)
Date: 2022-06-02
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: air transport, carriage of passengers, international convention, liability, transport accident, trauma, traveller








C_2022284EN.01000702.xml










25.7.2022   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 284/7






Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 2 June 2022 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Landesgericht Korneuburg — Austria) — JR v Austrian Airlines AG
(Case C-589/20) (1)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Air transport - Montreal Convention - Article 17(1) - Liability of air carriers for death or injury sustained by passengers - Concept of ‘accident’ causing death or injury - Bodily injury suffered during disembarkation - Article 20 - Exoneration of air carrier from liability - Concept of ‘damage suffered caused or contributed to by the negligence or other wrongful act or omission of that injured passenger’ - Fall of passenger not holding on to the handrail of a mobile disembarkation stairway)
(2022/C 284/05)
Language of the case: German

Referring court

Landesgericht Korneuburg

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: JR

Defendant: Austrian Airlines AG

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 17(1) of the Convention for the unification of certain rules for international carriage by air concluded on 28 May 1999 in Montreal, signed on 9 December 1999 by the European Community and approved on its behalf by Council Decision 2001/539/EC of 5 April 2001, must be interpreted as meaning that a situation in which, for no ascertainable reason, a passenger falls on a mobile stairway set up for the disembarkation of passengers of an aircraft and injures himself or herself constitutes an ‘accident’, within the meaning of that provision, including where the air carrier concerned has not failed to fulfil its diligence and safety obligations in that regard;










2.


The first sentence of Article 20 of the Convention for the unification of certain rules for international carriage by air concluded on 28 May 1999 in Montreal must be interpreted as meaning that, where an accident which caused damage to a passenger consists of a fall of that passenger, for no ascertainable reason, on a mobile stairway set up for the disembarkation of the passengers of an aircraft, the air carrier concerned may be exonerated from its liability towards that passenger only to the extent that, taking account of all the circumstances in which that damage occurred, that carrier proves, in accordance with the applicable national rules and subject to the observance of the principles of equivalence and effectiveness, that the damage suffered by that passenger was caused or contributed to by the negligence or other wrongful act or omission of that passenger, within the meaning of that provision.






(1)  OJ C 35, 1.2.2021.