In August of 2016, Michael Mennella arrived at Miami International Airport to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada on an American Airlines flight. Mennella, a double amputee, waited curbside for 15-20 minutes for a wheelchair attendant, and when one arrived, she allegedly spoke such poor English that he could not use her. He walked to the ticket counter using his prosthetic legs, where he waited for nearly an hour after asking for a new wheelchair attendant. Fearing that he would miss his flight, he began walking to the gate.
Mennella ultimately was able to board the aircraft, but was noticeably agitated and began asking for a drink. After initially asking the flight attendant serving his area without success, he walked to the back of the plane and began demanding one from the rest of the flight crew. He allegedly was belligerent to the flight crew, spitting as he spoke with a loud voice, and appeared to be intoxicated already. Upon hearing of Mennella's conduct, the Captain mandated that he not be served alcohol because he was in an agitated state. Concerned with advising Mennella of this, the flight attendant involved one of two law enforcement officers on board the aircraft, though this did not deter Mennella's requests. Mennella went so far as to state that it would create a medical emergency if he did not have alcohol, but apparently refused to let a nurse on board help him.
Ultimately, the flight had to be diverted to Dallas due to Mennella's conduct, and he was removed by waiting officers upon arrival. Mennella went willingly, and the officers quickly determined that Mennella was not intoxicated. Mennella eventually traveled to Las Vegas on a different flight.
Mennella commenced litigation in Florida state court asserting claims for defamation per se, negligence, IIED, and NIED. The action was removed to federal court and Mennella amended the complaint to assert a claim that American Airlines violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), defamed him by calling him a “drunk,” and negligently trained its employees to handle a disabled passenger.
American Airlines filed a motion for summary judgment dismissing the defamation and negligence causes of action, which was granted. On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit first affirmed the dismissal of the defamation claims on the basis that three of the four allegedly defamatory statements were not published to any third party (each of which related to flight crew members referring to Mennella as intoxicated), and the fourth (a flight attendant's statement to one of the officers in Dallas that she did not serve Mennella alcohol because she thought he had had enough to drink) was not sufficiently defamatory to constitute defamation per se.
The Eleventh Circuit next affirmed dismissal of the negligence claim on the basis that it was preempted under the Airline Deregulation Act. In so holding, the Court found that Plaintiff's claims that the airline provided untimely wheelchair service and failed to properly accommodate his disability (or train its employees to do so) related to services of American so as to implicate the Airline Deregulation Act. Finding that the claims implicated services, and without further analysis, the Court found that these claims were properly dismissed as preempted.
Handling unruly, and potentially intoxicated passengers, often raises difficult issues for airlines, and there have been well-publicized cases where courts perhaps did not protect airlines' actions as airlines (or their counsel) might have liked (see, e.g., Eid v. Alaska Airlines, 621 F.3d 858 (9th Cir. 2010)). Thus, this decision dismissing claims arising out of American Airlines' handling of an obviously unruly passenger should be welcomed, even if the Airline Deregulation Act analysis is not necessarily as robust as one might hope. Mennella v. Am. Airlines, No. 20- 11703-E, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24380 (11th Cir. Aug. 11, 2020).
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