In January 2017, Holland & Knight wrote about whether the first Trump Administration would sign and ratify the Protocol to Amend the Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft, known as Montreal...more
A consumer filed a class action lawsuit against a commercial airline on May 30, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California alleging three violations of California state law related to unfair and...more
6/6/2023
/ Advertising ,
Airline Deregulation Act ,
Airlines ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Carbon Off-Set Credits ,
Class Action ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Greenwashing ,
Preemption
"It cannot be seriously disputed that the COVID-19 pandemic is a natural disaster." This seemingly straightforward conclusion has only been reached in a small number of reported court decisions since the start of the...more
As the federal, state and local governments begin to relax business closure orders around the country, businesses may be eager to reopen and begin generating revenue but may be fearful of potential liability if a customer,...more
On March 16, 2020, a U.S. carrier was held before takeoff at JFK International Airport in New York after a passenger alerted flight attendants that they were exposed to someone who had tested positive for coronavirus. The...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently affirmed the forum non conveniens dismissal of wrongful death and product liability claims brought by personal representatives and beneficiaries of...more
1/28/2020
/ Abuse of Discretion ,
Airlines ,
Airplane Accidents ,
Appeals ,
Aviation Industry ,
Boeing ,
Dismissals ,
Evidence ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Forum Non Conveniens ,
Jurisdiction ,
Malaysia ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Product Defects ,
Public Interest ,
Sovereign Immunity ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wrongful Death
The Montreal Convention governs the rights and liabilities of parties for claims arising during international carriage between State Parties. Specifically, Articles 21 and 22 of the Convention set forth limits of liability...more
In Erwin-Simpson v. AirAsia Berhad, __ F. Supp. 3d __, No. 18-cv-00083 (CRC), 2019 WL 1317337 (D.D.C. Mar. 22, 2019), the court dismissed personal injury claims by a passenger and her husband arising from spilled boiling...more
5/1/2019
/ Airlines ,
Aviation Industry ,
Bodily Injury ,
Dismissals ,
Forum State ,
General Jurisdiction ,
Montreal Convention ,
Personal Jurisdiction ,
Physical Presence Test ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Travelers ,
Websites
In Garcia v Aerovias de Mexico, S. A., the district court remanded all but two actions among 14 that had been removed to federal court on diversity of jurisdiction and federal question grounds. The cases arose from the failed...more
On Nov. 21, 2018, multidistrict litigation (MDL) Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson dismissed all pending wrongful death cases arising from the disappearance of Flight MH370 on forum non conveniens (FNC) grounds. The court concluded...more
12/3/2018
/ Air Carriers ,
Airlines ,
Aviation Industry ,
Dismissals ,
Forum Non Conveniens ,
ICAO ,
Malaysia ,
Manufacturers ,
Montreal Convention ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Res Ipsa Loquitur ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wrongful Death
The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Eighth and Tenth Circuits recently affirmed district court opinions holding that the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) preempted state law claims that challenged prices charged by air ambulance...more
10/15/2018
/ Airline Deregulation Act ,
Airlines ,
Ambulance Providers ,
Appeals ,
Breach of Implied Contract ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Damages ,
Declaratory Judgments ,
Denial of Insurance Coverage ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Insurance Contracts ,
Preemption ,
Pricing ,
Putative Class Actions ,
State Law Claims ,
Unjust Enrichment
• Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) preempts class action claims seeking to enforce Florida statute that limits an air ambulance operator's prices by prohibiting balance billing of unpaid invoices.
• McCarran-Ferguson Act...more
5/25/2018
/ Airline Deregulation Act ,
Airlines ,
Ambulance Providers ,
Aviation Industry ,
Billing ,
Class Action ,
Dismissals ,
Insurance Industry ,
McCarran-Ferguson Act ,
Preemption ,
Pricing ,
Summary Judgment
In Martin v. United Airlines, Inc., __ Fed. App'x __, 2018 WL 992289 (10th Cir. Feb. 21, 2018), Oklahoma residents brought a putative class action asserting various breach of contract theories against the airline arising from...more
3/20/2018
/ Airline Deregulation Act ,
Airlines ,
Airports ,
Appeals ,
Aviation Industry ,
Breach of Contract ,
Contract Terms ,
Cost Recovery ,
Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing ,
Failure To State A Claim ,
Preemption ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Refunds ,
Ticket Pricing ,
Travelers ,
United Airlines
In January 2017, Holland & Knight Transportation & Infrastructure lawyers and senior advisors prepared 20 posts for the 20 days leading to President Donald Trump's inauguration regarding what to expect from the Trump...more
2/5/2018
/ Aviation Industry ,
Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Coal Industry ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FMCSA ,
Independent Contractors ,
Infrastructure ,
Joint Employers ,
Logging ,
Mexico ,
Mining ,
Motor Carriers ,
NAFTA ,
NHTSA ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Private Partnerships (P3s) ,
Railroads ,
TIFIA ,
Transportation Industry ,
Trucking Industry ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour ,
WIFIA
On Oct. 6, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied the airline's petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc in Doe v. Etihad Airways, P.J.S.C. As discussed in our previous post on this case, the panel...more
Defendant-appellee Etihad Airways recently petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc of Doe v. Etihad Airways, P.J.S.C., a decision by a panel of that court that...more
Unruly passenger incidents on commercial aircraft are an endemic problem for the airline industry. Such incidents threaten the safety and security of all on board, disrupt operations and result in significant economic losses...more
In litigation arising from the July 2013 accident of Asiana Flight 214 at the San Francisco International Airport, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the District Court's remand decision, holding that...more
7/10/2015
/ Airlines ,
Airplane Accidents ,
Airports ,
Asiana ,
Aviation Industry ,
Federal Admiralty Law ,
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ,
Jurisdiction ,
Navigable Waters ,
NTSB ,
San Francisco ,
SCOTUS ,
SFO
In Vanderwall v. United Airlines, Inc., __ F. Supp. 3d __, 2015 WL 309094 (S.D. Fla. Jan. 26, 2015), a federal district court in Florida granted summary judgment to the airline dismissing personal injury claims by a passenger...more
In personal injury or death cases, Article 33 of the Montreal Convention provides five jurisdictions in which an action against the airline can be brought: (1) an air carrier’s place of domicile; (2) an air carrier’s...more
In April 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) preempted a frequent flyer program member's common law claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing because the...more
- In deciding treaty status, courts place "controlling importance" on the governmental conduct of the countries at issue.
- Guyana's post-independence accession to other treaties – but its failure to formally accede to the...more
- An aircraft manufacturer's ability to remove a case to federal court based on admiralty jurisdiction involved consideration of whether "injury became inevitable" while the aircraft was still over water.
...more
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously holds that the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) preempts a state-law claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing where it seeks to enlarge the parties' voluntary...more
In Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp. v. Hoeper, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that immunity may not be denied under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA) to substantially true statements. According to the Court,...more
1/30/2014
/ Air Wisconsin v. Hoeper ,
Airline Employees ,
Airlines ,
ATSA ,
Aviation Industry ,
First Amendment ,
Immunity ,
National Security ,
SCOTUS ,
Sonia Sotomayor ,
Transportation Security Administration