INTRO:
“An American Airlines employee lifted a California woman from her wheelchair without permission and dropped her during the boarding of a flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia in 2016, according to a complaint filed Nov. 16 in a California Superior Court.”
The woman decided it was easier to fly across the nation, rather than to wheel herself across. Little did she know that wheeling across may have been safer for her in the end.
FACTS:
“Rose Glass’s daughter accompanied her mother on the trip, and warned against moving her, but the employee lifted Glass out of the chair “and then dropped her on the floor of the airplane,” the complaint states (Glass v. Amer. Airlines, Inc., Cal. Super. Ct., No. BC 683657, filed11/16/17).”
Well…, at least they did not strap her to the top of the plane, as if in a luggage rack; or make her fly with the luggage, U.S. mail, caged animals, and any corpse-filled coffins in the luggage portion of the plane.
ISSUES:
How are the airlines best to accommodate folks flying in wheelchairs and the likes who are unable to walk or wheel themselves into the plane?
LAW:
“The negligence suit, filed in California Superior Court for Los Angeles County, also contains an unusual allegation that the employee’s conduct amounted to assault and battery.
Glass seeks medical, general, and punitive damages, but doesn’t specify any injuries she suffered.”
Negligence = duty + breach + actual and proximate causation + resulting injury/damages
Defenses available to the airline? Not sure. Necessity?
In both criminal and civil law, “battery” is the intentional touching of, or application of force to, the body of another person in a harmful or offensive manner (and without consent). A battery is often confused with an assault, which is merely the act of threatening a battery, or of placing another in fear or apprehension of an impending and immediate battery. A battery is almost always preceded by an assault, which is why the terms are often used transitionally or combined, as in “assault and battery.”
An individual commits a battery if he acts intentionally either to cause a harmful or offensive contact or to cause imminent apprehension of such a contact and a harmful or offensive contact actually occurs. Offenders may face both civil liability and criminal charges for a single act.
From: http://injury.findlaw.com/torts-and-personal-injuries/battery-basics.html
DETAILED FACTS:
Nothing more than above, really. Woman claims she did not want to be lifted and daughter said the airline should not. The airline lifted her and carried her anyhow. Only to drop her in the aisle on the way to the woman’s seat.
The woman is seeking $75,000 in this personal injury suit
OTHER FACTS:
Lots of similar suits/issues from many airlines and parts of the world.
ARTICLE LINKS:
Glass v. Amer. Airlines, Inc., Cal. Super. Ct., No. BC 683657, filed11/16/17
quotes from:
