Kathryn Anne Grace (Partner-Charlotte, NC) and Christine R. Hogan (Partner-Baltimore, MD) secured affirmance of a dismissal from the Appellate Court of Maryland on behalf of our global airline carrier client. The plaintiff, a passenger on our client's flight, alleged the airline wrongfully removed him and his children from a domestic flight from Atlanta to Baltimore and, as a result, he was emotionally distressed. This segment of the trip was the final leg of a return flight from Italy, thus part of an international journey. The plaintiff claimed the airline unjustly accused him of uttering profanities at the crew and wrongfully ejected him, describing the family's removal as "wrongful, unfair, unjust, malicious, and callous." He sought to recover monetary damages for emotional distress.
In an 11-page opinion, the Appellate Court confirmed first that the Montreal Convention applied to the claim and second that the Convention did not recognize his claim as viable. The three-judge panel affirmed the trial court's dismissal of the passenger's lawsuit against our client, explaining that the multinational treaty requires any cause of action to be predicated on a physical injury. The panel further observed that, even assuming the plaintiff had sustained a qualifying injury, his claims were time-barred as he filed beyond the two-year statute of limitations provided for by the Convention.