Psychiatric Injury under Warsaw Convention
The applicants were passengers who claimed damages for psychiatric injury, after accidents in aircraft.
Held: The Convention created strict liability on air carriers, but explicitly restricted damages to be payable for ‘bodily injury’. That term did not include mental injury, and the awards for such were overturned. The brain as a part of the body was perfectly capable of being injured, and where the injury had a physical manifestation, damages were claimable. There was respectable medical support for the view that, for example, a major depressive disorder was the expression of physical changes in the brain and its hormonal chemistry. Such physical changes were capable of amounting to an injury and, if they did, they were bodily injuries. Also cases of post-traumatic stress disorder which had been shown to have a physical element in changes of the brain had been successful. The rights of a claimant are exclusively defined in the Convention; if the Convention gives no remedy then the alleged wrong will not be satisfied at law. Lord Hope: statutes of the ‘always speaking’ type: should be interpreted in the light of the current scientific evidence . . The proper approach is to make use of the best current medical and scientific knowledge that is available.’
Lord Hope stated the convention ‘was not based on the legal system of any of the contracting states. It was intended to be applicable in a uniform way across legal boundaries’, and ‘the language used should be construed on broad principles leading to a result that is generally acceptable’
Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough stated that the purpose of uniformity required the national court to ‘put to one side its views about its own law and other countries’ laws’ and focus on the question ‘what do the actual words used mean?’
Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord Steyn, Lord Hope of Craighead and Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough
Times 01-Mar-2002, Gazette 28-Mar-2002, [2002] UKHL 7, [2002] 2 AC 628, [2002] 2 WLR 578
House of Lords, Bailii
Warsaw Convention on International Carriage by Air 1929 17, Carriage by Air Act 1961
Scotland
Citing:
Cited – Weaver v Delta Airlines Inc 30-Jun-1999
(United States District Court, D. Montana, Billings Division.) . .
Appeal from – Morris v KLM Royal Dutch Airlines CA 17-May-2001
An unaccompanied female passenger aboard an aircraft was indecently assaulted. She suffered mental, but no physical, injury. She claimed damages against the airline under the Convention.
Held: The assault was a special risk inherent in air . .
Cited by:
Cited – In re Deep Vein Thrombosis and Air Travel Group Litigation QBD 20-Dec-2002
The claimants claimed to have suffered deep vein thrombosis having been sat in cramped conditions for long periods whilst travelling by air. They sought compensation, saying that the failure by the airlines to warn them and take steps to minimise . .
Cited – Glen and Other v Korean Airlines Company Ltd QBD 28-Mar-2003
The claimant sought damages for personal injuries under the Act. The injuries were psychiatric, being suffered when they witnessed a crash from the ground.
Held: Psychiatric injury is a recognised form of personal injury, and no statute . .
Cited – GKN Westland Helicopters Ltd and Another v Korean Air Lines Co Ltd; Press Tech Controls Ltd v Same ComC 19-May-2003
The sum accepted as a payment in, in an air carriage case was capable of being the ‘amount of damages’ awarded under the convention. That it exceeded the amount offered in settlement negotiations meant that the rights to costs under article 22.4 . .
Cited – Regina (Smeaton) v Secretary of State for Health and Others Admn 18-Apr-2002
The claimant challenged the Order as regards the prescription of the morning-after pill, asserting that the pill would cause miscarriages, and that therefore the use would be an offence under the 1861 Act.
Held: ‘SPUC’s case is that any . .
Cited – Regina (Smeaton) v Secretary of State for Health and Others Admn 18-Apr-2002
The claimant challenged the Order as regards the prescription of the morning-after pill, asserting that the pill would cause miscarriages, and that therefore the use would be an offence under the 1861 Act.
Held: ‘SPUC’s case is that any . .
Cited – Deep Vein Thrombosis and Air Travel Group Litigation HL 8-Dec-2005
The appellants had suffered deep vein thrombosis whilst travelling on long haul air flights. The defendants said that their liability was limited because the injuries were not accidents.
Held: The claimants’ appeal failed. The definition of . .
Cited – Barclay v British Airways Plc CA 18-Dec-2008
The claimant sought damages for personal injury. The airline said that the injury was not the result of an accident within article 17.1. She was walking down the aisle and slipped.
Held: The appeal was dismissed. The meaning of ‘accident’ . .
Cited – Gard Marine and Energy Ltd and Another v China National Chartering Company Ltd and Another SC 10-May-2017
The dispute followed the grounding of a tanker the Ocean Victory. The ship was working outside of a safe port requirement in the charterparty agreement. The contract required the purchase of insurance against maritime war and protection and . .
Cited – Mitsui and Co Ltd and Others v Beteiligungsgesellschaft Lpg Tankerflotte Mbh and Co Kg and Another SC 25-Oct-2017
This appeal raises the issue whether the daily vessel-operating expenses of shipowners incurred while they were negotiating to reduce the ransom demands of pirates should be allowed in general average – ie whether those expenses should be shared . .
Cited – Warner v Scapa Flow Charters (Scotland) SC 17-Oct-2018
This appeal raises a question about the interpretation of article 16 of the Athens Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea 1974 (‘the Athens Convention’) and its application to the Scots law of limitation of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 September 2021; Ref: scu.167671