Source: https://openjurist.org/284/f3d/352/king-v-american-airlines-inc-amr-amr
Timestamp: 2019-07-15 21:00:40
Document Index: 426638835

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 40105', '§ 41705', '§ 46101', '§ 41310', '§ 46106', '§ 40105']

284 F. 3d 352 - King v. American Airlines Inc Amr Amr
284 F.3d 352
George KING and Judy King, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Flagship Airlines, Inc., AMR Corporation, AMR Eagle Holding Corporation and American Eagle Airlines, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.
49 U.S.C.A. § 40105 note. The language of Article 24 was altered in several respects by Montreal Protocol No. 4 to Amend the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air ("Montreal Protocol"), which became effective in the United States in March of 1999. See 144 Cong. Rec. S11059-02 (Sept. 28, 1998). The most significant change was the elimination of the confusing "cases covered by"2 phrase and the substitution of more inclusive language:
In the carriage of passengers and baggage, any action for damages, however founded, can only be brought subject to the conditions and limits set out in this Convention ....
The Kings' discrimination claim is preempted by the Warsaw Convention if the events giving rise to the claim occurred in the course of the international "carriage of passengers and baggage," regardless of whether the original or the amended Article 24 controls. Yet we do not interpret Article 24 in isolation. In determining whether a claim is preempted because it falls within what the Supreme Court has termed the "substantive scope" of the treaty, we are directed to look to the Convention's liability provisions. Tseng, 525 U.S. at 171-72, 119 S.Ct. 662; Donkor v. British Airways Corp., 62 F.Supp.2d 963, 968 (E.D.N.Y.1999). These articles describe in further detail when an activity is part of the carriage of passengers and baggage. Articles 17, 18 and 19 of the treaty provide:
The district court held that the Kings' claim fell within the scope of the Convention because "bumping" is a delay in international travel within the meaning of Article 19. King, 146 F.Supp.2d at 162. We do not reach that issue, however, because we hold that the events in question occurred in the course of embarkation, and that the Kings' action therefore falls within the substantive scope of Article 17.4 See Albert v. Loksen, 239 F.3d 256, 265 (2d Cir.2001) ("We may, of course, affirm on any basis for which there is a record sufficient to permit conclusions of law, including grounds upon which the district court did not rely.") (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
Article 17's "substantive scope" extends to all "passenger injuries occurring `on board the aircraft or in the course of any of the operations of embarking and disembarking'" — even if the claim is not actionable under the treaty. Tseng, 525 U.S. at 172, 119 S.Ct. 662 (quoting Article 17). Although by its terms Article 17 limits recovery to passengers who have sustained "bodily injury," the Supreme Court in Tseng made clear that this restriction on liability affects neither the analysis of the substantive scope of the provision nor its preemptive effect. Id. at 161, 119 S.Ct. 662 (holding that Article 17 preempts any action for passenger injury suffered on board an aircraft or while embarking or disembarking, regardless of whether bodily injury has been alleged). The plaintiff in Tseng had brought suit for psychological injuries suffered as a result of an intrusive security search by El Al Israel during the embarkation process. Although Tseng had no cause of action under the Convention, she was prohibited from circumventing its restrictions by bringing a suit under local law. Id. Similarly, although the Kings would not be able to maintain an action under Article 17 for non-bodily injuries stemming from the discriminatory bumping, their claim is preempted if it arose from events that took place during embarkation.
This Court has adopted a flexible approach for determining whether a passenger is "in the course of any of the operations of embarking" when the injury allegedly occurred. We consider four factors: "(1) the activity of the passengers at the time of the accident; (2) the restrictions, if any, on their movements; (3) the imminence of actual boarding; (4) the physical proximity of the passengers to the gate." Buonocore v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 900 F.2d 8, 10 (2d Cir.1990). Applying this test, courts have previously held that passengers who had not yet left the terminal were nonetheless engaged in an operation of embarkation when they had gathered at the departure gate in order to board the bus that would take them to the plane. Evangelinos v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 550 F.2d 152, 164 (3d Cir.1977) (en banc) (holding that plaintiffs were injured in the course of embarkation when the passengers had completed all prerequisites to boarding except for the final security search at the gate, were congregated at the gate at the direction of airline personnel, and were awaiting the bus to transport them to the plane); Day v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 528 F.2d 31, 33-34 (2d Cir.1975) (holding that passengers fell within the scope of Article 17 when they had surrendered tickets, passed through passport control, entered an area reserved exclusively for departing passengers, and assembled at the departure gate in readiness for departure).
At the time they were bumped from their flight, the Kings had already checked in for their flight, received their boarding passes, and boarded the vehicle that was to transport them from the terminal to the aircraft. In other words, not only were they "actively engaged in preparations to board the plane," Buonocore, 900 F.2d at 10, but they had progressed further in those preparations than had the plaintiffs in Day and Evangelinos. See Ricotta v. Iberia Lineas Aereas De Espana, 482 F.Supp. 497, 500 (E.D.N.Y.1979) (ruling that a passenger injured in a bus transporting passengers from aircraft to terminal was injured in the course of disembarking an aircraft), aff'd, 633 F.2d 206 (2d Cir.1980); see also Barratt v. Trinidad & Tobago (BWIA Int'l) Airways Corp., No. CV 88-3945, 1990 WL 127590, at *3 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 28, 1990) (comparing plaintiff injured while descending a stairway to the tarmac with the Day passengers, wounded before they had even proceeded through the gate, in determining that the action was preempted by Article 17). The Kings therefore suffered their injury while "in the course of [one of] the operations of embarking" within the meaning of Article 17.
Plaintiffs do not contest that they were in the process of embarking the plane at the time the defendants allegedly committed the discriminatory act. Rather, they contend that their claim is not preempted by Article 17 because that provision covers only "accidents," as opposed to intentional conduct. As a preliminary matter, the term "accident" does not bear the limited construction plaintiffs propose. The Supreme Court has defined "accident" in this context as "an unexpected or unusual event or happening that is external to the passenger." Air France v. Saks, 470 U.S. 392, 405, 105 S.Ct. 1338, 84 L.Ed.2d 289 (1985). Intentional torts may, in some instances, constitute accidents actionable under the Convention. See, e.g., Wallace, 214 F.3d at 299-300 (holding that sexual assault is an "accident" within the meaning of Article 17). We need not decide today whether racial discrimination would fall within the definition of accident, however, because Tseng instructs that a claim for an injury to a passenger is preempted by Article 17 as long as the harm was sustained "in the course of any of the operations of embarking" on an aircraft. As we have determined that it was, this action must be brought under the terms of the Warsaw Convention or not at all.
IV. Discrimination Actions Under the Warsaw Convention
The Kings resist this conclusion. They would have us distinguish between civil rights claims and actions sounding in tort, and hold that the latter fall within the ambit of the Warsaw Convention while the former do not. In support of their position, appellants cite to language from Tseng that sets forth the outer boundaries of the Convention's coverage: "[T]he Convention's preemptive effect on local law extends no further than the Convention's own substantive scope." 525 U.S. at 172, 119 S.Ct. 662 (quoting Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae in El Al Israel Airlines v. Tseng, 1998 WL 401592, at *16 ("U.S. Amicus Brief")) (alteration in original). Discrimination, plaintiffs claim, is not within the "substantive scope" of the Convention.
Plaintiffs apparently agree that we should engage in an assessment of how closely linked the event giving rise to the cause of action was to the international "carriage of passengers and baggage." They eschew, however, any location or time-specific approach to this inquiry. They suggest instead that we evaluate whether the injury suffered is somehow unique or specific to airline travel. Under this analysis, because the Kings' injuries do not depend on whether the discrimination occurred on board the aircraft, on the tarmac, or at the ticket office, their suit would not fall within the scope of the Convention.
Were we to adopt the Kings' interpretation, we would eviscerate the uniformity that is the animating purpose behind the Convention, as claimants would be able to make similar arguments about any type of injury that can be sustained on board an aircraft. The Tseng Court's reference to the "substantive scope" of the Convention merely reinforces our conclusion, because the Court analyzed the limits of Article 17 in precisely these spatial and temporal terms: "A carrier ... is indisputably subject to liability under local law for injuries arising outside of [the substantive scope of the Convention]: e.g., for passenger injuries occurring before any of the operations of embarking or disembarking." Id. at 172, 119 S.Ct. 662 (internal quotation marks omitted).6
The aim of the Warsaw Convention is to provide a single rule of carrier liability for all injuries suffered in the course of the international carriage of passengers and baggage. As Tseng makes clear, the scope of the Convention is not dependent on the legal theory pled nor on the nature of the harm suffered. See Tseng, 525 U.S. at 171, 119 S.Ct. 662 (rejecting a construction of the Convention that would look to the type of harm suffered, because it would "encourage artful pleading by plaintiffs seeking to opt out of the Convention's liability scheme when local law promised recovery in excess of that prescribed by the treaty"); Cruz v. Am. Airlines, 193 F.3d 526, 531 (D.C.Cir.1999) (determining that fraud claim was preempted by Article 18, because the events that gave rise to the action were "so closely related to the loss of [plaintiffs'] luggage ... as to be, in a sense, indistinguishable from it").
Notably, every court that has addressed the issue of whether discrimination claims are preempted by the Warsaw Convention post-Tseng has reached a similar conclusion. See Waters v. Port Auth., 158 F.Supp.2d 415, 429 (D.N.J.2001) ("Although [the] cause of action is grounded in discrimination statutes, the thrust of his claim is one of personal injury. Undoubtedly, this falls within the scope of the Convention and the goal of providing a uniform scheme of liability."); Turturro v. Continental Airlines, 128 F.Supp.2d 170, 180-81 (S.D.N.Y.2001) (dismissing discrimination claim brought pursuant to the Air Carrier Access Act ("ACAA"), 49 U.S.C. § 41705 et seq., insofar as it was founded on actions that took place on board the aircraft); Brandt v. Am. Airlines, No. C 98-2089, 2000 WL 288393, at *4 (N.D.Cal. Mar. 13, 2000) (holding that ACAA claim was preempted by Article 17 when the conduct complained of occurred on board the aircraft). Although plaintiffs cite to pre-Tseng jurisprudence in which it was determined that discriminatory bumping claims did not fall within the scope of the Convention, we find those cases inapposite. See Wolgel v. Mexicana Airlines, 821 F.2d 442, 444-45 (7th Cir.1987) (ruling that claim for discriminatory bumping is not preempted by Article 19 when trip was never completed, because the damages sought by plaintiffs did not stem from "delay" in air travel, but from the act of bumping); Mahaney v. Air France, 474 F.Supp. 532, 534-35 (S.D.N.Y.1979). In those cases, there was no allegation that the discriminatory bumping occurred during the course of embarkation. Thus, those courts did not address the question of whether discrimination actions could be preempted by Article 17. We do not reach the separate issue of whether, after Tseng, such discriminatory bumping claims would also fall within the substantive scope of Article 19.
Plaintiffs raise the specter that our decision will open the doors to blatant discrimination aboard international flights, invoking images of airline passengers segregated according to race and without legal recourse. They suggest that, despite Article 24's plain mandate that the Warsaw Convention preempts "any cause of action, however founded," we should nonetheless carve out an exception for civil rights actions as a matter of policy. This we decline to do. "[I]t is our responsibility to give the specific words of the treaty a meaning consistent with the shared expectations of the contracting parties." Saks, 470 U.S. at 399, 105 S.Ct. 1338. It is not for the courts to rewrite the terms of a treaty between sovereign nations. Cf. Turturro, 128 F.Supp.2d at 181 ("[T]he Convention massively curtails damage awards for victims of horrible acts [of] terrorism; the fact that the Convention also abridges recovery for ... discrimination should not surprise anyone.").
Moreover, while private suits are an important vehicle for enforcing the anti-discrimination laws, they are hardly the only means of preventing discrimination on board aircraft. Federal law provides other remedies. Responsibility for oversight of the airline industry has been entrusted to the Secretary of Transportation. The Kings could, therefore, have filed a complaint with the Secretary. 49 U.S.C. § 46101. The FAA prohibits air carriers, including foreign air carriers, from subjecting a person to "unreasonable discrimination." Id. § 41310(a). The Secretary has the authority to address violations of FAA provisions, including the power to file civil actions to enforce federal law. Id. § 46106. It does not follow from the preemption of the Kings' private cause of action that air carriers will have free rein to discriminate against passengers during the course of an international flight.
Article 29 of the Warsaw Convention provides that "[t]he right to damages shall be extinguished if an action is not brought within 2 years, reckoned from the date of arrival at the destination, or from the date on which the aircraft ought to have arrived, or from the date on which the transportation stopped." 49 U.S.C. § 40105 note
This phrase may also be translated from the original French text as "in the cases anticipated by Article 17" or "the cases provided for by Article 17."Tseng, 525 U.S. at 167 n. 11, 119 S.Ct. 662.
Cf. Cortes v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 177 F.3d 1272, 1283 (11th Cir.1999) ("[C]oncerns about retroactive application are not implicated when an amendment that takes effect after the initiation of a lawsuit is deemed to clarify relevant law rather than effect a substantive change in the law.").
Both below and before this Court, the parties debated whether the Kings' aborted trip actually involved a "delay" in travel such that their claim would fall within the scope of Article 19. Because the Kings' claim is plainly preempted by Article 17, we decline to reach the Article 19 question on this motion for judgment on the pleadings, as it potentially implicates disputed issues of fact
We do not express any opinion as to whether damages may be recovered under Article 17 for "accidents" that are not uniquely characteristic of air travel, a question that we have previously reservedSee Wallace, 214 F.3d at 299. Our holding applies only to the preemptive scope of the Convention, which is often broader than the scope of the remedies the Convention provides.
Similarly, in a footnote to the passage from the U.SAmicus Brief quoted by the Tseng Court, the United States observed that Article 18's substantive scope "comprise[d] the period during which the baggage or goods are in charge of the carrier, whether in an airport or on board an aircraft," but did not extend to transportation by land, sea or river performed outside an airport. U.S. Amicus Brief at 16 n. 8.