Source: http://www.asbar.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3090:langford-v-hawaiian-airlines-inc&catid=59&Itemid=229
Timestamp: 2015-05-06 12:29:43
Document Index: 47098480

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 27', 'art. 1', 'art. 18', 'art. 18', 'art. 18', 'art. 23', 'art. 22']

Langford v. Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.,
HomeCasesSecond-Series10ASR2dLangford v. Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.,
AMERICAN SAMOA GOVERNMENT ex rel. JERRY LANGFORD, Plaintiff
CA No. 37-88
Territorial government whose consumer protection agency brought action in a representative capacity on behalf of a named individual, and which was not named as a plaintiff in its own right, could not recover damages in the consumer protection action for the loss of its own property. A.S.C.A. § 27.0402.
Mere possibility that plaintiff's employer may hold him financially responsible for loss of employer's property by defendant airline does not entitle plaintiff to recover damages for such loss.
Rules of liability established by the Warsaw apply to "international transportation," to air transportation between one country and another. Warsaw Convention, art. 1(2).
In order to effectuate its drafters' intent to foster international air transportation by creating uniform rules of liability, the Warsaw Convention should be read to create its own cause of action for loss of baggage, so that whether particular damage occasioned by loss of baggage is compensable depends on construction of the Convention and not on internal law of signatory countries. Warsaw Convention art. 18(1).
Provision of the Warsaw Convention creating liability for "damage sustained by" loss of baggage, and containing no language limiting the amount of recovery to the value of the lost baggage or to "foreseeable" damages, should be construed to [10ASR2d2] allow recovery of consequential damages occasioned by loss of baggage. Warsaw Convention art. 18(1).
Under provision of the Warsaw Convention which, unlike the common law, allows recovery of consequential damages whether or not they were foreseeable, passenger's purchase of a battery pack for use during his trip to replace one lost by defendant airline constitutes compensable damage even though the lost battery pack belonged to plaintiff's employer and not to plaintiff. Warsaw Convention art. 18(1).
Terms of air carriage contract which were inconsistent with Warsaw Convention were void, because the contract itself so provided and also because treaty obligations are the supreme law of the land and therefore supersede private contracts. U .8. Const. art. VI.
Airline's disclaimer of liability for "valuable items" such as video equipment is unenforceable in light of Warsaw Convention clause that nullifies contractual provisions "tending to relieve the carrier of liability or to fix a lower limit" than that allowed by the Convention. Warsaw Convention art. 23.
Warsaw Convention limits liability for lost baggage to $9.07 per pound. Warsaw Convention art. 22(4).
Under Warsaw Convention where carrier's liability for lost baggage depends on weight, defendant airline has the burden of proving weight of the lost bag, and in the absence of such proof court will assume the bag weighed seventy pounds, the maximum amount the contract allowed passenger to carry in one bag.
Before KRU8E, Chief Justice, and TAUANU'U, Chief Associate Judge.
From our analysis of the cases, it is the Court's view that the interpretation provided by the latter line of authority suggests the more logical and natural result of the Convention. Among the reasons given by the more recent cases to sustain the view that the Convention establishes a cause of action, was the apparent and primary concern among the delegates to create and formulate a uniform law relating to the regulation of international air carriage. The court in Benjamins pointed out that making a plaintiff's rights under the Convention dependent on the prior question whether the domestic law of a signatory provided him a cause of action was inconsistent with the spirit of the Convention. The policy of uniformity can only be best effectuated by interpreting the Convention as establishing causes of action independent of local law. The cases further go on to consider in context a number of the Convention's provisions as well as conference minutes as clearly establishing the intendment of universal regulation. As a result the Ninth Circuit in In re Mexico City Aircrash concluded that article 17 of[10ASR2d6] the Convention established a wrongful death cause of action independent of the provisions of California law. Accordingly, this Court shall be guided by the terms of the Convention in determining what damages and the amount of damages plaintiff may recover.