High Court Clarifies Limitations On Montreal Convention Claims

In a recent decision the High Court clarified the scope of the Montreal Convention(1) in terms of the claims which may be brought under it before the Irish courts. In McAuley v Aer Lingus Limited (2) , the plaintiff had sought damages for slander, or alternatively negligent misstatement and/or injurious falsehood and/or intentional infliction of mental suffering and/or breach of the plaintiff's constitutional rights. The defendants claimed that the convention was the only basis on which a claim against a carrier could be advanced by a passenger and that it was limited only to personal injuries. They sought to strike out the plaintiff's claim for showing no reasonable cause of action.

Facts

The first defendant is an airline, and the other defendants were two of its employees aboard the relevant flight. At the beginning of the flight, the plaintiff asked for four alcoholic drinks to consume during the three-and-a-quarter-hour flight. The request was allegedly refused on the basis of a policy whereby only two alcoholic drinks could be provided at any one time. It was alleged that the plaintiff queried the policy and sought more alcohol on a number of occasions. On arrival at the destination in Lithuania, the second and third defendants claimed that the plaintiff had been intoxicated aboard the aircraft. They contacted the local police, who escorted the plaintiff from the aircraft before permitting him to leave. The second defendant filed a report with the local police and the incident was subsequently reported in the Lithuanian press.

Submissions

The plaintiff argued that if the convention were applicable, and was the only basis on which a claim against a carrier could be advanced by a passenger, the effect would be that no cause of action could arise where an airline defames a passenger, which he suggested was anomalous. By contrast, the defendants submitted that the convention was not designed to provide remedies against the carrier to enable all losses to be compensated. Rather, they submitted, it was designed to define situations in which compensation was to be available in the interests of certainty.

Decision

Judge Hedigan considered the jurisdiction of the High Court to strike out a plaintiff's claim, noting both the applicable rules of the superior courts and the inherent jurisdiction of the court to strike out unsustainable proceedings. He noted that such an application will not succeed once the ingredients of a good cause of action...