Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/708/400/330028/
Timestamp: 2017-10-23 17:04:26
Document Index: 349225821

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1301', '§ 1331', '§ 1301', '§ 1421', '§ 1421', '§ 1506', '§ 1471', '§ 1487', 'Art. 17', 'Art. 17', '§ 767', 'art 2', '§ 1332', '§ 1421', '§ 1471', '§ 1502', '§ 51', '§ 909', '§ 761']

In Re Mexico City Aircrash of October 31, 1979 Consolidatedproceedings.gary Steve Haley, As Heir and Claimant of Deceased Theresayoriko Sugano Haley, Gary Steven Haley, Specialadministrator for the Estate of Theresayoriko Sugano Haley, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Western Airlines, Inc., Defendant-appellee.blanca Estela Paz Tovar, Heir and Claimant of Deceasedregina Patricia Tovar; Blanca Estela Paz Tovar,special Administrator for the Estate Ofregina Patricia Tovar,plaintiff-appellant,anthony John Dzida, As Heir and Claimant of Deceased Vikkidzida, Anthony John Dzida, Special Administratorfor the Estate of Vikki Dzida,plaintiff- Appellant, v. Western Airlines, Inc., a Delaware Corporation, Mcdonnelldouglas Company, Inc., a Maryland Corporation; Estate Ofcharles Gilbert; Sperry-rand, Inc., Sunstrand Data Control,inc., a Foreign Corporation; Bendix Corporation, Flightsystems Division, a Delaware Corporation; Rockwellinternational, Inc.; Collins Air Transport Division, Aforeign Corporation; Thompson, C.f.s., a Foreigncorporation, Defendants-appellees, 708 F.2d 400 (9th Cir. 1983) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Ninth Circuit › 1983 › In Re Mexico City Aircrash of October 31, 1979 Consolidatedproceedings.gary Steve Haley, As Heir and...
In Re Mexico City Aircrash of October 31, 1979 Consolidatedproceedings.gary Steve Haley, As Heir and Claimant of Deceased Theresayoriko Sugano Haley, Gary Steven Haley, Specialadministrator for the Estate of Theresayoriko Sugano Haley, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Western Airlines, Inc., Defendant-appellee.blanca Estela Paz Tovar, Heir and Claimant of Deceasedregina Patricia Tovar; Blanca Estela Paz Tovar,special Administrator for the Estate Ofregina Patricia Tovar,plaintiff-appellant,anthony John Dzida, As Heir and Claimant of Deceased Vikkidzida, Anthony John Dzida, Special Administratorfor the Estate of Vikki Dzida,plaintiff- Appellant, v. Western Airlines, Inc., a Delaware Corporation, Mcdonnelldouglas Company, Inc., a Maryland Corporation; Estate Ofcharles Gilbert; Sperry-rand, Inc., Sunstrand Data Control,inc., a Foreign Corporation; Bendix Corporation, Flightsystems Division, a Delaware Corporation; Rockwellinternational, Inc.; Collins Air Transport Division, Aforeign Corporation; Thompson, C.f.s., a Foreigncorporation, Defendants-appellees, 708 F.2d 400 (9th Cir. 1983)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit - 708 F.2d 400 (9th Cir. 1983)
Argued and Submitted May 4, 1982. Decided May 24, 1983
In response to Western's motions, the plaintiffs each asserted three sources of a right to recover damages despite the status of the decedents as Western employees. Under the "dual capacity" doctrine of California law, the plaintiffs claimed, an action could be maintained against Western on a products liability theory if Western contributed to the design or manufacture of the plane that crashed, even though an action could not be maintained based on Western's status as an employer. The other two theories of recovery were based on rights derived from federal law that the plaintiffs claimed preempted the exclusivity of the state worker's compensation remedy. The sources of federal law relied upon by the plaintiffs were the Federal Aviation Act, 49 U.S.C. §§ 1301-1542, and the Warsaw Convention, 49 Stat. 3000, T.S. No. 876, 137 L.N.T.S. 11.
The issues that we must determine are not simply whether some cause of action was available to the plaintiffs that would allow them to circumvent the limitation on remedies imposed by sections 3600 and 3601 of the California Labor Code, but also whether there existed any such cause of action over which the district court could properly exercise subject matter jurisdiction. The plaintiffs did not sufficiently allege diversity.4 The district court had jurisdiction to entertain the action only if the plaintiffs' causes of action depended upon federal law. See 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (Supp. IV 1980); Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. Superior Court, 366 U.S. 656, 663, 81 S. Ct. 1303, 1307, 6 L. Ed. 2d 584 (1961); Gully v. First National Bank, 299 U.S. 109, 112-13, 57 S. Ct. 96, 97-98, 81 L. Ed. 70 (1936). Only if such a federal question was raised by the complaint could the district court in each case consider whether to exercise pendent jurisdiction over state law claims. If the dismissal of the plaintiffs' federal claims was proper, then dismissal of the state claims was within the court's discretion. United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 726, 86 S. Ct. 1130, 1139, 16 L. Ed. 2d 218 (1966); Hodge v. Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Co., 555 F.2d 254, 261 (9th Cir. 1977). The critical issue at this stage is whether the district court improperly dismissed any valid federal cause of action as to which there existed a genuine issue of material fact. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). We now consider that question.
The Federal Aviation Act ("the Act"), 49 U.S.C. §§ 1301-1542 (1976 & Supp. IV 1980), is a detailed statute that governs civil aviation within the jurisdiction of the United States. Subchapter VI of the Act, 49 U.S.C. §§ 1421-1432 (1976 & Supp. IV 1980), entitled "Safety Regulation of Civil Aeronautics," confers extensive powers upon the Secretary of Transportation to prescribe standards and regulations concerning numerous aspects of civil aviation for the purpose of promoting safety.5 Pursuant to this subchapter, the secretary has promulgated comprehensive rules and guidelines, published in volume 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
This court has not addressed the question whether a private remedy is available under the Federal Aviation Act for the representatives of persons killed in a commercial aviation accident.7 Appellants rely on two district court decisions, Gabel v. Hughes Air Corp., 350 F. Supp. 612 (C.D. Cal. 1972), and In re Paris Air Crash, 399 F. Supp. 732 (C.D. Cal. 1975), to support their position that a private right of action may be implied in the Act. In Gabel, Judge Pierson Hall concluded that representatives of decedents killed in an air crash may maintain a cause of action under the Act against the common carrier. 350 F. Supp. at 615. In Paris Air Crash, Judge Hall reexamined the issue in light of the Supreme Court's intervening decision in Cort v. Ash, 422 U.S. 66, 95 S. Ct. 2080, 45 L. Ed. 2d 26 (1975), and reached the same conclusion. 399 F. Supp. at 747-48.
This court has not been required to assess the holding of Gabel and Paris. In Sanz v. Renton Aviation, Inc., 511 F.2d 1027 (9th Cir. 1975) we considered whether personal representatives of decedents killed in an air crash could maintain a cause of action under the Act against the owner-lessor of an aircraft for the negligence of the pilot-lessee. We concluded that no federal cause of action existed on those facts. Id. at 1029.8 We neither rejected nor adopted the holding of Gabel, simply refusing to find a cause of action on differing facts.
In World Airways, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 578 F.2d 800 (9th Cir. 1978), we affirmed a district court order vacating part of a labor arbitrator's award requiring an airline to retrain and requalify a pilot who had been demoted for exercising poor judgment. Id. at 801. The court ruled that the authority of the arbitrator to shape a remedy was limited by the policy of the Federal Aviation Act, which allows and in fact requires airlines to create and maintain ability and performance standards for their pilots. To show why airlines should not be forced to employ pilots who cannot meet such standards, the court observed that " [f]ailure of an airline to comply with the provisions of the Federal Aviation Act and [its] regulations ... can result in both administrative and civil penalties against the carrier. See ... In Re Paris Air Crash of March 3, 1974, 399 F. Supp. 732, 747-48 (C.D. Cal. 1975)." 578 F.2d at 803. Read in context, the statement in World Airways does not constitute an endorsement of the Paris Air Crash holding that a private right of action inheres in the Federal Aviation Act.
In the absence of pertinent Ninth Circuit authority, we look for guidance to Supreme Court cases that discuss the question of when it is proper to imply a private right of action in a federal regulatory statute. The basic issue is whether Congress intended to create such a private cause of action. Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Association, 453 U.S. 1, 13, 101 S. Ct. 2615, 2622, 69 L. Ed. 2d 435 (1981); California v. Sierra Club, 451 U.S. 287, 293, 101 S. Ct. 1775, 1778-79, 68 L. Ed. 2d 101 (1981). In Cort v. Ash, 422 U.S. 66, 78, 95 S. Ct. 2080, 2088, 45 L. Ed. 2d 26 (1975), the Court listed four factors to be used to resolve this issue:9
Beginning with the first of the Cort factors, we find it beyond dispute that the Federal Aviation Act was enacted by Congress in order to promote safety in aviation and thereby protect the lives of persons who travel on board aircraft. See, e.g., 49 U.S.C. § 1421 (quoted supra in note 5). We agree with the appellants that Congress intended to benefit equally both airline passengers and employees, and that the plaintiffs' decedents cannot sensibly be excluded from the protected class simply because they were Western employees. The first part of the Cort test is therefore satisfied. This alone does not establish that Congress intended a private right of action to run in favor of the protected class members, however. We must search the Act for evidence of congressional intent to create such a right.
No such intent is manifested explicitly in either the Act or its legislative history. The appellants seek support for their claim that Congress had such an intent in the savings clause incorporated in the Act, which states: "Nothing contained in this chapter shall in any way abridge or alter the remedies now existing at common law or by statute, but the provisions of this chapter are in addition to such remedies."10 49 U.S.C. § 1506 (1976). But section 1506 does not evidence any positive intent to create a private cause of action. It simply preserves private remedies that exist independent of the Act. In Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Association, 453 U.S. 1, 101 S. Ct. 2615, 69 L. Ed. 2d 435 (1981), the Supreme Court reversed a decision by the Third Circuit that found an implied right of action based on such a savings clause. See id. at 9, 101 S. Ct. at 2620. The Court held it incorrect for the court of appeals to rely upon an ambiguous savings clause while ignoring the extensive statutory enforcement scheme to which the language of the savings clause likely referred. Id. at 15-17, 101 S. Ct. at 2623-2625.
The Federal Aviation Act creates an extensive administrative enforcement scheme. 49 U.S.C. § 1471 provides civil penalties of $1,000 for each violation of the Act. Continuing violations are subject to fines of $1,000 per day. 49 U.S.C. § 1487 authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to seek injunctive relief in order to compel compliance with the Act. In light of these statutory remedies, we must follow the "elemental canon of statutory construction that where a statute expressly provides a particular remedy or remedies, a court must be chary of reading others into it." Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Association, 453 U.S. 1, 14-15, 101 S. Ct. 2615, 2623-24, 69 L. Ed. 2d 435 (1981); Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. v. Lewis, 444 U.S. 11, 19, 100 S. Ct. 242, 246, 62 L. Ed. 2d 146 (1979); see also Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington, 442 U.S. 560, 574, 99 S. Ct. 2479, 2488, 61 L. Ed. 2d 82 (1979). Because of the Act's emphasis on administrative regulation and enforcement, we conclude that "it is highly improbable that 'Congress absentmindedly forgot to mention an intended private action.' " Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, 444 U.S. at 20, 100 S. Ct. at 247 (quoting Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677, 742, 99 S. Ct. 1946, 1981, 60 L. Ed. 2d 560 (1979) (Powell, J., dissenting)); see Diefenthal v. CAB, 681 F.2d 1039, 1049 (5th Cir. 1982) (the Act's detailed administrative enforcement scheme, together with private right to seek injunctive relief in some cases, provides strong evidence that Congress did not intend a private cause of action for damages).
The appellants have not cited, nor have we uncovered, any legislative history indicating that Congress intended to create a private right of action in the Federal Aviation Act.11 We have likewise concluded that the Act itself yields no evidence of such an intent. Therefore, the second and arguably most significant part of the Cort test, whether there is any indication of a congressional intent to create a private right of action, is unsatisfied. We need not proceed further to conduct the third and fourth steps of the Cort analysis. See California v. Sierra Club, 451 U.S. 287, 298, 101 S. Ct. 1775, 1781, 68 L. Ed. 2d 101 (1981) (the final two factors are relevant only if the first two factors evidence congressional intent to contain a remedy). We conclude that the Federal Aviation Act does not contain an implied private right of action.12
Id. at 488. The court's conclusion was thus premised upon the rule, peculiar to common law jurisdictions, that the survivors of a person wrongfully killed hold no right of action absent a specific statute that prescribes such recovery and names the persons entitled to share in it. See The Harrisburg, 119 U.S. 199, 213, 7 S. Ct. 140, 146, 30 L. Ed. 358 (1886).
The New York Supreme Court followed Choy in Wyman v. Pan American Airways, Inc., 181 Misc. 963, 43 N.Y.S.2d 420, 423 (Sup.Ct.1943), aff'd, 293 N.Y. 878, 59 N.E.2d 785, cert. denied, 324 U.S. 882, 65 S. Ct. 1029, 89 L. Ed. 1432 (1944).14 But in a later case, Salamon v. Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, N.V., 107 N.Y.S.2d 768, 771 (Sup.Ct.1951), aff'd, 281 A.D. 965, 120 N.Y.S.2d 917 (A.D.1953), the court reached the opposite result. Without citation to the earlier cases, it based its holding upon the observation that " [i]f the Convention did not create a cause of action in Art. 17, it is difficult to understand just what Art. 17 did do." Id. at 773.15
The Southern District of New York again considered the issue in Komlos v. Compagnie Nationale Air France, 111 F. Supp. 393 (S.D.N.Y. 1952), rev'd on other grounds, 209 F.2d 436 (2d Cir. 1953). Judge Leibell in that case rejected the court's conclusion in Salamon, relying primarily upon the text of a letter from Secretary of State Cordell Hull to President Roosevelt describing the Convention. Secretary Hull wrote:
Komlos, 111 F. Supp. at 401-02 (quoting 1934 U.S.Av.Rep. 239, 243 (letter of Secretary Hull)).16 Because Secretary Hull's letter stated merely that article 17 created a "presumption of liability," and not a "cause of action," Judge Leibell reasoned that the Convention does not in fact give rise to any independent cause of action. See id. at 401. However, the opinion ultimately equivocates concerning this conclusion, since it later suggests that a separate right of action would stem from the Convention in the situation where an accident occurs in a forum that does not provide any cause of action for wrongful death. Id. at 402.17
Although the Second Circuit reversed the district court decision in Komlos, it did not disturb or even mention its conclusion on the Warsaw Convention cause of action issue. Komlos v. Compagnie Nationale Air France, 209 F.2d 436 (2d Cir. 1953). The Second Circuit did become the first circuit to discuss the question in Noel v. Linea Aeropostal Venezolana, 247 F.2d 677 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 355 U.S. 907, 78 S. Ct. 334, 2 L. Ed. 2d 262 (1957). In that case, Judge Lumbard writing for the court relied upon the "presumption of liability" language of Secretary Hull's letter and the earlier implicit affirmance in Komlos to conclude that the Warsaw Convention did not supply the plaintiff with a federal cause of action. Id. at 679. The court in Noel further rejected Judge Leibell's statement in Komlos that the Convention provides a stopgap cause of action in situations where the place of injury does not. Id. at 679-80.
The Noel decision met sharp criticism from commentators. A major article questioning the wisdom of Komlos and Noel appeared in the Harvard Law Review. Lowenfeld & Mendelsohn, The United States and the Warsaw Convention, 80 Harv. L. Rev. 497, 517-19 (1967). The chairman of the United States delegation sent to the Hague on a mission to raise the liability limits of the Warsaw Convention argued strenuously that Noel is wrong and that the Convention creates an independent contract right of action for wrongful death. Calkins, The Cause of Action Under the Warsaw Convention, 26 J. Air L. & Com. 217 (1959). Yet the Ninth Circuit, in a dictum designed to support its resolution of a collateral issue, cited Noel and Komlos for the proposition that "the Warsaw Convention does not create a cause of action, but merely creates a presumption of liability if the otherwise applicable substantive law provides a claim for relief based on the injury alleged."18 Maugnie v. Compagnie Nationale Air France, 549 F.2d 1256, 1258 n. 2 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 974, 97 S. Ct. 2939, 53 L. Ed. 2d 1072 (1977). Lower courts also considered Noel and its predecessors to establish that the Convention creates no independent cause of action.19 See, e.g., Husserl v. Swiss Air Transport Co., 388 F. Supp. 1238, 1243 (S.D.N.Y. 1975); Notarian v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 244 F. Supp. 874, 877 (W.D. Pa. 1965).
Then the Second Circuit decided Benjamins v. British European Airways, 572 F.2d 913 (2d Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1114, 99 S. Ct. 1016, 59 L. Ed. 2d 72 (1979). Writing for the majority in a 2-1 decision, Judge Lumbard overruled his own opinion in Noel, and held that the Warsaw Convention does create an independent cause of action for wrongful death. Id. at 916. The court based its resolution of the issue on three primary arguments.
Second, the court drew support for its holding that a cause of action for wrongful death is supplied by article 17 from article 30(3) of the Convention. This article has been held to create a treaty right of action for a passenger whose baggage is lost where more than one carrier is involved. See Seth v. British Overseas Airways Corp., 329 F.2d 302, 305 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 858, 85 S. Ct. 114, 13 L. Ed. 2d 61 (1964). The Benjamins majority reasoned, in effect, that the Convention operates the same way even if only one carrier is involved and the damage is inflicted upon passengers, not baggage. 572 F.2d at 918.
Finally, the court felt compelled by evidence of the way Great Britain, the only other common law signatory with a general rule against wrongful death recovery, chose to implement the Convention. Great Britain, immediately after ratifying the Convention, enacted legislation that included the following provision: [a]ny liability imposed by Article seventeen of the said [Warsaw Convention] on a carrier in respect of the death of a passenger shall be in substitution for any liability of the carrier in respect of the death of that passenger either under any statute or at common law.
This circuit has not been required to reexamine the question whether the Convention creates an independent cause of action since Benjamins was decided. In Dunn v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 589 F.2d 408, 411-12 (9th Cir. 1978), we noted that Benjamins contradicts the previous majority rule, but we found no necessity to determine whether Benjamins should be followed. With the history just discussed as a background, we must now resolve that question. Like the court in Benjamins, we conclude that the Convention creates an independent cause of action for wrongful death, a cause of action founded in federal treaty law.
First, the structure and text of the Warsaw Convention itself indicates that the Convention is intended to supply a cause of action to injured passengers. Benjamins pointed to article 30(3) as evidence to support this proposition; we find other Convention articles persuasive as well. Most important, of course, are the words of article 17, which state that " [t]he carrier shall be liable for damage sustained in the event of the death or wounding of a passenger" (emphasis added). The normal meaning of this phrase is that a passenger injured during international air transportation may maintain an action to impose liability on the carrier. Only by a strained reading can article 17 be interpreted to mean that signatory nations do not by ratifying the Convention create a cause of action under their national law, but rather merely create a presumption of liability to be employed in whatever actions may be available under other domestic law. But since the latter interpretation of article 17 is not completely implausible, we examine the remainder of the Convention to discern which interpretation is more consistent with the Convention's overall scheme.
It is important also that article 29 speaks of "the right to damages," as if that right is already assured by virtue of the Convention. In fact, the official French language text of the Convention illustrates this point even more clearly. The first portion of article 29 in the French text reads, " [l] 'action en responsabilite doit etre intentee, sous peine de decheance, dans le delai de deux ans...." 49 Stat. at 3007, T.S. No. 86, at 8, 137 L.N.T.S. at 28. A literal translation of this language would be, " [t]he action for liability must be brought within two years, else it lapses." By speaking in this way of "the action for liability,"22 and not merely in terms of "an action for liability subject to the Convention," the article shows that the Convention creates a cause of action. Nor is this language in article 29 merely an isolated instance. Articles 27 and 28 also refer in identical phrasing to "the action for liability."23
The early decisions that laid down the rule that the Convention does not independently allow wrongful death recovery were founded upon the doctrine that under our common law system, no wrongful death action can be maintained in the absence of specific statutory authority. See Choy v. Pan American Airways Co., 1941 Am.Mar.Cas. 483, 488 (S.D.N.Y.); Wyman v. Pan American Airways, Inc., 181 Misc. 963, 43 N.Y.S.2d 420, 423 (Sup.Ct.1943) aff'd, 293 N.Y. 878, 59 N.E.2d 785 (App.Div.), cert. denied, 324 U.S. 882, 65 S. Ct. 1029, 89 L. Ed. 1432 (1944); see also Noel v. Linea Aeropostal Venezolana, 247 F.2d 677, 679 (2d Cir.) (citing Wyman and authorities that rely on Choy), cert. denied, 355 U.S. 907, 78 S. Ct. 334, 2 L. Ed. 2d 262 (1957); Komlos v. Compagnie Nationale Air France, 111 F. Supp. 393, 399 (S.D.N.Y. 1952) (quoting Wyman), rev'd on other grounds, 209 F.2d 436 (2d Cir. 1953). We consider highly significant the fact that the Supreme Court has now rejected this premise.
In Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc., 398 U.S. 375, 90 S. Ct. 1772, 26 L. Ed. 2d 339 (1970), the Court considered a situation in which a longshoreman had been killed while working aboard a vessel within Florida's territorial waters. Id. at 376, 90 S. Ct. at 1775. The defendants in the case moved to dismiss on the ground that federal statutory law provided no recovery for wrongful death within a state's territorial waters, and that Florida's wrongful death statute did not recognize unseaworthiness as a theory of recovery. Id. The court rejected this argument and ruled that a wrongful death action could be maintained by the decedent's representatives under federal maritime law even absent specific statutory authorization. In a sweeping opinion, Justice Harlan writing for a unanimous court overruled The Harrisburg and other nineteenth century cases that refused to allow wrongful death actions absent a statute. He concluded that the "barbarous" common law rule against wrongful death recovery has been so universally abrogated by statute that the contrary rule should now be considered "part of the general law." Id. at 381, 388-392, 90 S. Ct. 1777, 1781-1783 (quoting Pound, Comment on State Death Statutes--Application to Death in Admiralty, 13 NACCA L.J. 188, 189 (1954)).
The Court in Moragne considered the same issue here presented, whether the difficulty of ascertaining persons entitled to recover precludes finding a wrongful death cause of action without statutory definition. The Court held that this problem does not prevent finding a generalized right to wrongful death recovery. Id. at 406-08, 90 S. Ct. at 1790-92. It ruled that a court presented with such an issue may properly look to other more specific federal statutes for guidance, and observed that "a suit for wrongful death raises no problems unlike those that have long been grist for the judicial mill." Id. at 408, 90 S. Ct. at 1792. See also Sea-Land Services, Inc. v. Gaudet, 414 U.S. 573, 94 S. Ct. 806, 39 L. Ed. 2d 9 (1974).26
Taking guidance from Moragne, we hold that the Warsaw Convention creates a cause of action for wrongful death, and that the questions of who are the persons entitled to assert that cause of action and what are their respective rights may be determined by reference to other federal statutes. Because no issue of this kind has been raised in the present case, we leave to future courts the task of determining the most appropriate analog.27 See Moragne, 398 U.S. at 408, 90 S. Ct. at 1791-92.
To conduct this inquiry, we turn once more to article 17 of the Convention, which states that " [t]he carrier shall be liable for damage sustained in the event of the death or wounding of a passenger" (emphasis added). The mere presence of the plaintiffs' decedents aboard the aircraft was not enough to bring them within the coverage of the Convention. For the plaintiffs to recover, the decedents had to qualify as "passengers" within the meaning of article 17.
As to appellant Dzida, we reach a different conclusion. Western's supporting affidavit in effect admits that Vikki Dzida was not a working flight attendant on Flight 2605. Rather, the supervisor states that she was a "deadheading" employee based in Los Angeles who was traveling to Mexico City to take a duty shift aboard a plane departing from that location. The affidavit maintains that Dzida was receiving full pay and half flight time credit for her time aboard the aircraft. Even though uncontroverted, we do not find these allegations sufficient to negative the existence of genuine issues of material fact concerning the question whether Dzida was receiving "transportation" as a "passenger" aboard the flight. Therefore, we conclude that summary judgment as to plaintiff Dzida was improper. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e) advisory committee note.
In Demanes v. United Air Lines, 348 F. Supp. 13 (C.D. Cal. 1972), Judge Pregerson, then District Court Judge, considered a situation strikingly similar to the present one. The plaintiffs in that case were the representatives of four United pilots who were killed in an air crash while "deadheading" aboard a United flight between Los Angeles and Denver. The issue was whether these pilots were limited to worker's compensation remedies under applicable state law because they were acting "within the course and scope of their employment when they died." Id. at 14. Judge Pregerson ruled that these pilots were "passengers" for purposes of the airline's liability for injury or death, and that they were not, therefore, subject to the worker's compensation statute, even though they were receiving half-pay and half-flight time credit for their time aboard the flight. Id.
As one final argument in favor of sustaining the summary judgment below, Western contends that any cause of action available to the plaintiffs under federal law does not displace the provisions of California's worker's compensation law that purport to establish an exclusive remedy for the death of a covered employee, citing King v. Pan American World Airways, 270 F.2d 355 (9th Cir. 1959), cert. denied, 362 U.S. 928, 80 S. Ct. 753, 4 L. Ed. 2d 746 (1960), and Stoddard v. Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc., 513 F. Supp. 314 (C.D. Cal. 1980). Even apart from the holding of Demanes, which directly contradicts Western's position, the argument has no merit. King and Stoddard both involved suits under the Death on the High Seas Act, a statute that expressly provides that state statutes giving or regulating any right of actions or remedies for death are not affected by its provisions. 46 U.S.C. § 767 (1976); see King, 270 F.2d at 362. The Warsaw Convention contains no such proviso. It therefore preempts the exclusivity of the California worker's compensation statute for the same reason it would preempt any provision of local law that purported to limit the recovery allowed by the Convention. See supra Part 2(a). The summary judgment entered against appellant Dzida was erroneous and must be reversed.
The final contention raised by the plaintiff-appellants is that they should be allowed to maintain actions against Western in its capacity as a designer or manufacturer of the airplane that crashed pursuant to the "dual capacity" doctrine of California law. In the cases of appellants Haley and Tovar, dismissal of the state law claims was proper because all federal claims were properly dismissed before trial. See United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 726, 86 S. Ct. 1130, 1139, 16 L. Ed. 2d 218 (1966). In the case of appellant Dzida, pendent jurisdiction over the state law claim may be permissible, since he may have stated a federal claim that requires trial. We decline to decide the question whether pendent jurisdiction is proper under Gibbs. The district court will resolve the issue on remand. See Benjamins, 572 F.2d at 919.
The district court judgments, copied verbatim from Western's proposed judgments, do not indicate whether the dismissals were for failure to state a claim, Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) (6), or summary judgments, Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). Since the judgments were based on Western's affidavits, we interpret them as summary judgments. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)
The essential elements of diversity jurisdiction, including the diverse residence of all parties, must be affirmatively alleged in the pleadings. See Hodgson v. Bowerbank, 9 U.S. (5 Cranch) 303, 3 L. Ed. 108 (1809); Hodas v. Lindsay, 431 F. Supp. 637, 640 (S.D.N.Y. 1977). While the complaint of each plaintiff asserted the existence of diversity jurisdiction, each complaint also stated that the plaintiff is a resident of California and that Western Airlines is a corporation having its principal place of business in Los Angeles, California. Diversity jurisdiction was not, therefore, sufficiently alleged. 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), (c) (1976)
For example, 49 U.S.C. § 1421(a) (1976) provides:
49 U.S.C. § 1471(a) (1) (Supp. IV 1980) states in part:
(a) (1) Any person who violates (A) any provision of subchapter III, IV, V, VI, VII, or XII of this chapter or of section 1514 of this title or any rule, regulation, or order issued thereunder, or under section 1482(i) of this title, or any term, condition, or limitation of any permit or certificate issued under subchapter IV of this chapter, or (B) any rule or regulation issued by the Postmaster General under this chapter, shall be subject to a civil penalty of not to exceed $1,000 for each such violation, except that the amount of such civil penalty shall not exceed $10,000 for each such violation which relates to the transportation of hazardous materials. If such violation is a continuing one, each day of such violation shall constitute a separate offense.
No other circuit has squarely confronted the issue we must resolve. Cf. Rauch v. United Instruments, Inc., 548 F.2d 452, 457-58 & n. 10 (3d Cir. 1976) (finding no private right of action for potential air crash victims but explicitly not deciding whether actual victims of air crashes may maintain a cause of action). A number of circuits have denied a private right of action based on provisions of the Act unrelated to safety. See, e.g., Diefenthal v. CAB, 681 F.2d 1039, 1049-50 & n. 12 (5th Cir. 1982). Two district courts have recently concluded that personal representatives of decedents killed in an air crash may not maintain a cause of action under the Act. See Obenshain v. Halliday, 504 F. Supp. 946, 949-51 (E.D. Va. 1980); Heckel v. Beech Aircraft Corp., 467 F. Supp. 278, 281 (W.D. Pa. 1979). See infra note 12
See also McCord v. Dixie Aviation Corp., 450 F.2d 1129, 1130 (10th Cir. 1971); Rogers v. Ray Gardner Flying Serv., 435 F.2d 1389, 1391-95 (5th Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 1010, 91 S. Ct. 1255, 28 L. Ed. 2d 546 (1971). These cases, which denied recovery on a vicarious liability theory, went further than Sanz and stated in dicta that no private right of action is created by the Federal Aviation Act. See McCord, 450 F.2d at 1130; Rogers, 435 F.2d at 1393-94
A number of members of the Supreme Court have expressed reservations about the four-part Cort test. See, e.g., Sierra Club, 451 U.S. at 302, 101 S. Ct. at 1783 (Rehnquist, J., concurring) (all four Cort factors need not be applied when the legislative intent has been determined); Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677, 749, 99 S. Ct. 1946, 1985, 60 L. Ed. 2d 560 (1979) (Powell, J., dissenting) (the Cort four-part test should be abandoned). Nonetheless, the Cort factors "remain the 'criteria through which [legislative] intent should be discerned.' " Sierra Club, 451 U.S. at 293, 101 S. Ct. at 1779 (quoting Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228, 241, 99 S. Ct. 2264, 2275, 60 L. Ed. 2d 846 (1979))
Congress never expanded on the meaning of this section. See H.R.Rep. No. 2360, 85th Cong., 2d Sess. 18-19, reprinted in 1958 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 3741, 3758; H.R.Rep. No. 2254, 75th Cong., 3d Sess. 11-12 (1938). Courts have differed over exactly what congressional intent can be gleaned from that section. Compare Obenshain v. Halliday, 504 F. Supp. 946, 950 (E.D. Va. 1980) (section not intended to create a private cause of action but simply to preserve state causes of action) with Gabel v. Hughes Air Corp., 350 F. Supp. 612, 617 (C.D. Cal. 1972) (section reveals congressional intent to provide private rights and remedies in addition to state law)
However, there is some evidence that members of Congress do not believe that any such private right exists. In 1968 and 1969 Congress considered various bills that would have created, among other things, an exclusive federal private cause of action arising out of certain aircraft crashes. Aircraft Crash Litigation: Hearings on S. 961 Before the Subcomm. on Improvements in Judicial Machinery of the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 217 (1969); Aircraft Crash Litigation: Hearings on S. 3305 and S. 3306 Before the Subcomm. on Improvements in Judicial Machinery of the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, 90th Cong., 2d Sess. 5-6 (1968); see generally Note, Aircraft Crash Litigation, 38 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1052 (1970). Although the bills were never enacted, the logical implication from Congress's consideration of the issue is that it believed that the Act did not provide a private cause of action. We are mindful of the admonition that " 'the views of a subsequent Congress form a hazardous basis for inferring the intent of an earlier one.' " Andrus v. Shell Oil Co., 446 U.S. 657, 666 n. 8, 100 S. Ct. 1932, 1938 n. 8, 64 L. Ed. 2d 593 (1980) (quoting United States v. Price, 361 U.S. 304, 313, 80 S. Ct. 326, 332, 4 L. Ed. 2d 334 (1960)). The court has also indicated that "while arguments predicated upon subsequent congressional actions must be weighed with extreme care, they should not be rejected out of hand as a source that a court may consider in the search for legislative intent." Shell, 446 U.S. at 666 n. 8, 100 S. Ct. at 1938 n. 8. We thus consider the later Congressional interest in creating a federal private cause of action as some indication that the earlier Congress did not intend to create a private cause of action under the Act
Our decision comports with the majority of cases that have dealt with this issue. Compare In re Paris Air Crash of March 3, 1974, 399 F. Supp. 732, 747 (C.D. Cal. 1975); Gabel v. Hughes Air Corp., 350 F. Supp. 612, 615-23 (C.D. Cal. 1972), and Neiswonger v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 35 F.2d 761, 762 (N.D. Ohio 1929) (Air Commerce Act of 1926) (upholding right of action) with Obenshain v. Halliday, 504 F. Supp. 946, 950-51 (E.D. Va. 1980); Heckel v. Beech Aircraft Corp., 467 F. Supp. 278, 280-81 (W.D. Pa. 1979); Yelinek v. Worley, 284 F. Supp. 679, 681 (E.D. Va. 1968); Moungey v. Brandt, 250 F. Supp. 445, 453 (W.D. Wis. 1966); Porter v. Southeastern Aviation, Inc., 191 F. Supp. 42, 43 (M.D. Tenn. 1961); Moody v. McDaniel, 190 F. Supp. 24, 27-29 (N.D. Miss. 1960) and Mozingo v. Consolidated Constr. Co., 171 F. Supp. 396, 398-99 (E.D. Va. 1959) (all denying private right of action under Federal Aviation Act for wrongful death or personal injury). Other cases reached the same result under the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938
Our result also accords with the majority of recent decisions, including a case from this circuit, that deny any private right of action under portions of the Act dealing with matters other than safety. Compare Chumney v. Nixon, 615 F.2d 389, 395 (6th Cir. 1980) (Federal Aviation Act creates private right of action against airline for failing to prevent assault by passenger); Fitzgerald v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 229 F.2d 499, 501-02 (2d Cir. 1956) (Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 creates implied right of action for racial discrimination by common air carrier), and Laughlin v. Riddle Aviation Co., 205 F.2d 948, 949 (5th Cir. 1953) (C.A.A. creates right of action by pilot to recover wages due under an NLRB decision) with Montgomery v. American Airlines, Inc., 637 F.2d 607, 610 (9th Cir. 1980) (Federal Aviation Act vests no right of action to challenge free transportation provided to employees of airline subsidiary in persons other than Civil Aeronautics Board), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 920, 101 S. Ct. 1368, 67 L. Ed. 2d 347 (1981); Diefenthal v. CAB, 681 F.2d 1039, 1048-51 (5th Cir. 1982) (Act does not create private right of action to challenge airline regulation of smoking); Kodish v. United Air Lines, Inc., 628 F.2d 1301, 1302-03 (10th Cir. 1980) (Act creates no private right of action to challenge age discrimination in pilot selection); Caceres Agency, Inc. v. Trans World Airways, Inc., 594 F.2d 932, 933 (2d Cir. 1979) (Act creates no private right of action to remedy preferential discrimination among travel agents); Wolf v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 544 F.2d 134, 136-38 (3d Cir. 1976) (Act creates no private right of action to remedy deceptive practices by airline), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 915, 97 S. Ct. 1327, 51 L. Ed. 2d 593 (1977) and Danna v. Air France, 463 F.2d 407, 410 (2d Cir. 1972) (Act creates no private right to challenge fare discrimination in favor of youths absent prior CAB determination that practice is wrongful).
The Warsaw Convention ("the Convention"), formally titled the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Transportation by Air, was created on October 12, 1929, and was adhered to by the United States on June 15, 1934. The official text of the treaty is in French and is published at 49 Stat. 3000 (1934). An English translation is published at 49 Stat. 3014 (1934), and also reprinted in T.S. No. 876, 137 L.N.T.S. 11 and 49 U.S.C. § 1502 note (1976). Except where otherwise indicated, the references below are to the articles of the English translation of the Convention contained in the foregoing sources
F. Supp. at 402
Commentators also believed that the issue had been settled, even though they sometimes criticized the rule. See, e.g., Lowenfeld & Mendelsohn, The United States and the Warsaw Convention, 80 Harv. L. Rev. 497, 519 (1967); Note, Air Passenger Deaths Resulting From Injuries Sustained On or Over the High Seas, and at Unknown Places; Including Considerations of the Death on the High Seas Act, of the Warsaw Convention, and of Presumptions of Foreign Law, 41 Cornell L.Q. 243, 261 (1956) [hereinafter cited as Cornell Note ]; Orr, The Warsaw Convention, 31 Va. L. Rev. 423, 434 (1945)
The court cited Reed v. Wiser, 555 F.2d 1079, 1092 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 922, 98 S. Ct. 399, 54 L. Ed. 2d 279 (1977), as an example of a recent case that stressed this policy of uniformity. Benjamins, 572 F.2d at 917
The best explanation for the wording of article 24(1) appears to be that the delegates did not intend that the cause of action created by the Convention to be exclusive. For example, in the United States, state law causes of action may be invoked by plaintiffs injured during international air transportation. Such causes of action might, consistently with the Convention, provide varying measures of damages or varying specifications of persons entitled to recover. Cf. In re Aircrash in Bali, 684 F.2d 1301, 1311 & n. 8 (9th Cir. 1982) (any cause of action created by Warsaw Convention is not exclusive). The delegates used article 24(1) to ensure that neither the liability limits of the Convention nor its limitation period could be circumvented by resort to such an alternative legal basis of action. See Riese at 219-20; Warsaw Minutes at 213 (remarks of Sir Alfred Dennis).
For a commentary that Moragne weighs heavily in favor of finding a cause of action in the Convention, see Note, Finding a Cause of Action for Wrongful Death in the Warsaw Convention: Benjamins v. British European Airways, 40 Ohio St. L.J. 277, 286-88 (1979)
The Court in Moragne suggested as potential reference points the Jones Act, 45 U.S.C. § 51, the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 909, and particularly the Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U.S.C. §§ 761, 762. 398 U.S. at 407-08, 90 S. Ct. at 1791-1792
Our result, endorsing the decision in Benjamins, accords with the majority of commentators who have assessed that decision. Compare 19 Va.J.Int'l.L. 183, 196 (1978) (criticizing Benjamins for lack of textual basis and questioning necessity of decision) with Note, Finding a Cause of Action for Wrongful Death in the Warsaw Convention: Benjamins v. British European Airways, 40 Ohio St. L.J. 277, 294 (1979) (finding Benjamins justified in light of Moragne and Gaudet) ; Comment, Warsaw Convention, 11 Vand.J.Transnat'l.L. 575, 581-82 (1978) (praising Benjamins for harmonizing U.S. law with foreign law); and Comment, The Warsaw Convention Creates a Cause of Action for Wrongful Death--Benjamins v. British European Airways, 38 Md.L.Rev. 120, 134 (1978) (concluding that Benjamins reaches a sound result)