Court Opinion

ID: 9467216
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:41:53.968426+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:13.857492
License: Public Domain

WIDENER, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
Although I concur completely in Judge Murnaghan’s separate opinion, a few additional words are, with respect, in order in light of what the majority finds, or fails to find, in the record regarding the effect of pregnancy during the first thirteen weeks.
The majority’s treatment of the first thirteen weeks of pregnancy (Part II of Judge Sprouse’s opinion) is based on the similar premises that the experts “point to the virtual unanimous conclusion that a pregnant flight attendant can adequately perform routine and emergency duties through the thirteenth week of pregnancy,” p. 366, and that “there is no credible evidence supporting Eastern’s contention that pregnancy during the first thirteen weeks is a factor that might affect the safety of its passenger operation.” P. 372. I believe both of them are demonstrably unsupported by the record.
. Even a hurried reference to the appendix shows an unrefuted example of an actual occurrence which supports my view. On an Eastern flight from Boston to Washington with a stop at Lexington, one stewardess had to work the trip by herself because the other stewardess, in her first trimester, was incapacitated by morning sickness. If the Captain had known about it, he would have had to cancel the trip in order to comply with FAA requirements. FAA requirements were violated by flying the trip with only one stewardess able to perform her duties. (App. 1272, 1282).
An equally obvious example is the testimony of Dr. William Cooper whose specialty is obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Cooper has been a practicing physician since 1953 and is a licensed pilot. He has delivered somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 babies and has seen many more patients than that.
*383Dr. Cooper testified in small part as follows:
“Q. Can women ordinarily predict when they will be affected by morning sickness?
A. No. I don’t believe they can predict it at all, Ms. Perdue. It can happen at any time. Come out of the blue just like that; no warning.
Sometimes they will even notice a projectile vomiting and difficulty getting to the bathroom in order to not mess things up.
It is not predictable.
Q. Are dizziness and fainting sometimes common the first trimester?
A. Very common.”
(App. 1134)
* * * * * *
Q. Is it possible to predict when a pregnant woman will faint or which women will suffer from this?
A. It is not possible to predict which women will suffer from it.
It is possible, otherwise, to say, stay out of a closed-in environment, a hot environment; stay out of a situation where this might occur.
And when you have finished eating dinner, stand up slowly; don’t get out of bed rapidly in the morning, and so forth. Q. In your opinion, would this tendency to faint or dizziness be aggravated by motion?
A. Yes, I think it would.
Once again, the body has to adjust to another irritant or something occurring to the body’s environment.
(App. 1136)
Q. Do you believe it [permitting pregnant flight attendants to work on aircraft] would compromise the safety of passengers and other crew members on the aircraft?
A. I do.
(App. 1175)
The nine physicians who comprised the Air Transport Association Medical and Sanitation Committee recommended by a 8 to 1 vote that flight attendants should be taken off flight status as soon as they are aware of pregnancy. (App. 1266)
The above uneontradicted incident, the brief excerpt from the testimony of Dr. Cooper, and the unrefuted recommendation of eight of the nine physicians comprising the Air Transport Association Medical and Sanitation Committee show, I submit, beyond doubt that the position of the majority that there is a “virtual unanimous conclusion that a pregnant flight attendant can adequately perform routine and emergency duties through the thirteenth week of pregnancy,” and its similar position that “there is no credible evidence supporting Eastern’s contention that pregnancy during the first thirteen weeks is a factor that might affect the safety of its passenger operation” are not supported by the record.
To simply dismiss as incredible the evidence of the physician who testified contrary to the findings of the majority is not a sufficient answer. I suggest that it may be explained by the fact that neither the opinion of the district court nor either of our opinions (Judge Sprouse and Judge Butzner) which make up a majority permitting pregnant stewardesses to fly during the first thirteen weeks, even mentions the statutory standard which is deeply involved in this case, which is, of course, 49 U.S.C. § 1421(b). That statute requires in terms that the FAA administrator shall give full consideration to “the duty resting upon air carriers to perform their service with the highest possible degree of safety.”
A stewardess who is vomiting in the lavatory cannot participate effectively in an emergency evacuation. Neither can one who is fainting or miscarrying. If for no other reason than because the record will support only the conclusion that fainting and vomiting cannot be predicted, it is simply not possible to operate an aircraft with the “highest possible degree of safety” with a stewardess flying who may well be incapacitated just when she is needed most. I suggest that the absence of any mention of the statutory requirement in the opinion of *384the district court and the two majority opinions of this court is due to the fact that there is no answer to it. But the question must be answered before liability may be established. A finding of liability with no answer given, or even attempted, to what is obviously one of the key questions in the case, is, I submit, unjustified.