Lost luggage suit against British Air advances

Forget frequent-flyer miles — air passengers seeking rewards just got one: the right to sue international airlines for losing or destroying their luggage.

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York ordered last week that a federal class-action lawsuit could go forward against British Airways PLC, also known as British Air. In the lawsuit, a dozen American passengers say the company's baggage handling system is operated “recklessly and with knowledge that damage would probably result.”

“While providing repeated, false assurances to their travelers, British Air simultaneously routes tens of thousands of passengers' baggage to auction houses,” the class-action lawsuit said. “British Air fails to provide any notice to its passengers concerning this practice.”

The decision means that any American flying on a foreign-owned aircraft overseas can sue and seek more than the $1,500 per bag in damages set by international treaty.

That is, the judge ruled, if the passengers can prove that the loss was “done with intent to cause damage or recklessly and with knowledge that damage would probably result” as laid out in the Montreal Convention.

According to Mark Firmani, a spokesman with law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro that is handling the case, this lawsuit is the first class-action case to go after an international airline for damages above the Montreal pact's $1,500 per bag limit.

The treaty spells out liabilities paid to families for death or injury aboard aircraft, and also fixes the amount of money that should be paid for lost or damaged luggage. Under the treaty, passengers could only claim damages.

British Airways argued that passengers cannot prove that losing or damaging luggage was “reckless” or that the company acted “with knowledge that damage would probably result.”

The airline also argued that the term “probably” as stated in the treaty - “that damage would probably result” - must mean that more than half of all bags get damaged, a claim the judge rejected.

Judge Garaufis said the complaint against the airline “plausibly suggests that the stated injuries were the result of recklessness on the part of BA, and that BA was subjectively aware of an unjustifiable risk of injury to its passengers' baggage.”

The victims in this case, most of whom live in Washington state, traveled on the airline between September 2005 through September 2007.

Phillip Sanford of Seattle checked his bicycle for a cycling vacation in the Swiss Alps, but his bike never arrived and his cycling trip was ruined.

“Instead, he was coldly informed that 10,000 to 12,000 lost bags were being processed at any given time, and there was little they could do,” according to the class-action lawsuit.

“Mr. Sanford spent his pre-paid cycling tour riding on uncomfortable, ill-equipped bicycles lent out of generosity by others, with what equipment he was able to purchase, and at times simply sitting in a van,” the lawsuit said.

Joan Smith traveled to Italy for a romantic vacation with her husband and was deprived of nearly all of her travel items including asthma medicine when her baggage was lost, and had to spend vacation time shopping. Her husband spent hours on the phone with BA attempting to locate their baggage.

Story Continues →