Aviation

• Author: International Law Group

Willis Blake, a U.S. national who lives in Jamaica, started a round-trip flight on American Airlines from Jamaica to Connecticut on December 27, 1995. In Miami, Blake changed aircrafts and went on board America Airlines Flight 1480 headed to Hartford. When he found out that there would be a ground delay, Blake went to the lavatory and smoked a cigarette. When questioned about it, Blake admitted that he had done so. The captain and the pilot demanded that Blake get off the plane right away.

After three refusals, the pilot physically removed Blake from his seat, causing Blake to injure his head on the overhead storage compartment. After an overnight hospital stay, Blake took his trip and got back home to Jamaica toward the end of January 1996.

On August 19, 1999, about three and a half years after the incident, Blake sued American Air Lines for damages in a Florida state court. Defendant removed the case to federal court. The latter then gave summary judgment to defendant on the grounds that plaintiff had filed his suit after the running of the two-year limitation period in the Warsaw Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Transportation by Air, 49 Stat. 3000, T.S. 876, 137 L.N.T.S. 11 (1929) reprinted in note following 49 U.S.C. Section 40105. Plaintiff thereupon took an appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, however, affirms.

Article 29(1) of the Convention extinguishes the right to damages if plaintiff does not sue within two years from the passenger's arrival at his or her destination. The Convention applies to "international transportation" which covers plaintiff's trip from Jamaica to the U.S. and back. The question, however, remains whether Jamaica was a High Contracting Party to the Convention at the time of the incident. The U.K. had adopted the Convention on its own behalf and on behalf of its colonies in 1934. The Carriage by Air (Parties to Convention) Order, 1999 lists the colony of Jamaica as a High Contracting Party to the Convention as of March 3, 1935. The crucial issue then is whether Jamaica lost that status when it secured its independence from the U.K. in 1962.

Since the conduct of foreign affairs is more of a political (rather than a judicial) function, the intentions and conduct of the nation in question are critical. This is especially so where, as here, Jamaica has never formally ratified the Warsaw Convention. Nor has the U.S. State Department taken a position...