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 travel, and damages would be recoverable for any ‘lesion corporelle/bodily injury.’ That phrase required some physical injury before damages could be awarded, and the claimant had suffered only mental injury.
courtcommentary.com Clinical depression, though an accident, does not constitute bodily injury under Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention
Judges:
The Master of The Rolls, Lord Justice Peter Gibson Andlord Justice Latham
Citations:
Times 15-Jun-2001, Gazette 21-Jun-2001, [2001] EWCA Civ 790, [2001] 3 WLR 351, [2001] 3 All ER 126, [2002] QB 100, [2001] CLC 1460, [2001] 2 All ER (Comm) 153
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Air France v Saks 1985
(United States Supreme Court) The claimant suffered damage to and become permanently deaf in one ear as a result of pressurisation changes while the aircraft descended to land. The pressure system had worked normally. The airline said that the . .
Cited by:
Appeal from – King v Bristow Helicopters Ltd; Morris v KLM Royal Dutch Airlines HL 28-Feb-2002
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 . .
Cited – Barclay v British Airways plc CC 27-Feb-2008
(Oxford County Court) The claimant slipped as she boarded an aircraft and sought damages for injuries to her knee. Her claim was brought under the Convention. The defendant denied that the injury occurred as the result of an accident, saying that an . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Transport, Personal Injury
Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147551
