FT: "Pax Considering Lawsuit Against Delta Over Onboard Sexual Assault"
Apr 30, 2017, 2:09 pm
#1
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FT: "Pax Considering Lawsuit Against Delta Over Onboard Sexual Assault"
FlyerTalk:
Can we discuss this here? What tortious claims does the passenger have against an airline when another passenger assaults him/her? Does the airline have a duty of care to physically protect one passenger from another passenger?
The attorney for a woman who was groped and assaulted on a Delta Airlines flight last summer blames the airline for allowing the perpetrator’s behavior to escalate dramatically during the trip.
Forty-one-year-old Christopher Finkley will spend time in jail after pleading guilty to charges that he exposed himself, masturbated in public view and groped a nearby passenger on a Delta Airlines flight from Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR) to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW). Now, attorney Gerald Acker says his client may sue the airline for allowing her to be terrorized by Finkley, despite clear warning signs that he was a danger to other passengers.
Acker contends that even after Finkley was caught exposing himself and masturbating, he was left unattended. The lawyer says that Finkley was then free to grab the thigh of the victim he represents. According to court records, the aggressive passenger at one point even placed his hand under the woman’s shorts as she pleaded for him to stop.
“Rather than telling anybody, they allow this predator to move to the back of the airplane and assault a passenger,” Acker told The Detroit Free Press “It’s our understanding they didn’t have any policies to deal with any incidents like this. That’s what their representation has been – which is hard to believe.”
After he was initially caught pleasuring himself, Finkley reportedly moved from the first class cabin to the rear of the plane where he assaulted the female passenger ... The victim who does not want to be identified was too distraught to give a statement to police when Finkley was originally taken into custody by police upon landing at DTW.
The family is said to have been offered a combination of SkyMiles and travel vouchers in the wake of the traumatic incident.
“My guess is that in the next few weeks, we’ll be filing a lawsuit,” Acker told the newspaper. The attorney declined to specify the amount of damages they would seek but indicated that the dollar amount would be “enough to make sure that when predators are on airplanes that they remember who they are, and that they don’t allow them to roam through an airplane.”
Forty-one-year-old Christopher Finkley will spend time in jail after pleading guilty to charges that he exposed himself, masturbated in public view and groped a nearby passenger on a Delta Airlines flight from Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR) to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW). Now, attorney Gerald Acker says his client may sue the airline for allowing her to be terrorized by Finkley, despite clear warning signs that he was a danger to other passengers.
Acker contends that even after Finkley was caught exposing himself and masturbating, he was left unattended. The lawyer says that Finkley was then free to grab the thigh of the victim he represents. According to court records, the aggressive passenger at one point even placed his hand under the woman’s shorts as she pleaded for him to stop.
“Rather than telling anybody, they allow this predator to move to the back of the airplane and assault a passenger,” Acker told The Detroit Free Press “It’s our understanding they didn’t have any policies to deal with any incidents like this. That’s what their representation has been – which is hard to believe.”
After he was initially caught pleasuring himself, Finkley reportedly moved from the first class cabin to the rear of the plane where he assaulted the female passenger ... The victim who does not want to be identified was too distraught to give a statement to police when Finkley was originally taken into custody by police upon landing at DTW.
The family is said to have been offered a combination of SkyMiles and travel vouchers in the wake of the traumatic incident.
“My guess is that in the next few weeks, we’ll be filing a lawsuit,” Acker told the newspaper. The attorney declined to specify the amount of damages they would seek but indicated that the dollar amount would be “enough to make sure that when predators are on airplanes that they remember who they are, and that they don’t allow them to roam through an airplane.”
Apr 30, 2017, 2:52 pm
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After he was initially caught pleasuring himself . . . . .
Heavens to Betsy!!!
offered a combination of SkyMiles and travel vouchers
Heavens to B-B-B-Betsy!!!!!!
Apr 30, 2017, 3:35 pm
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This will be settled out of court, the attorney will take home most of the undisclosed payout and we will never hear of it again.
Apr 30, 2017, 7:04 pm
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May 1, 2017, 7:03 am
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For violent passengers at the gate, GAs are supposed to leave the area, and only take other passengers with them if doing so doesn't jeopardize their own safety.
May 1, 2017, 7:13 am
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Offering safety instructions is different than physical protection, I think. Flight attendants aren't required to physically drag someone off an evacuating flight--they're only supposed to direct them to the nearest exit. There's a line between safety guide and physical protector. I wonder if airlines are required to physically intervene, which would put FAs at risk of physical harm.
For violent passengers at the gate, GAs are supposed to leave the area, and only take other passengers with them if doing so doesn't jeopardize their own safety.
For violent passengers at the gate, GAs are supposed to leave the area, and only take other passengers with them if doing so doesn't jeopardize their own safety.
"Stop molesting that woman or I'll ask you to stop molesting her again!"
But no, really, physical restraint should NOT be the default action. Report, but it's not their job to play police.
May 1, 2017, 11:31 am
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Offering safety instructions is different than physical protection, I think. Flight attendants aren't required to physically drag someone off an evacuating flight--they're only supposed to direct them to the nearest exit. There's a line between safety guide and physical protector. I wonder if airlines are required to physically intervene, which would put FAs at risk of physical harm.
For violent passengers at the gate, GAs are supposed to leave the area, and only take other passengers with them if doing so doesn't jeopardize their own safety.
For violent passengers at the gate, GAs are supposed to leave the area, and only take other passengers with them if doing so doesn't jeopardize their own safety.
This clearly looks like a training opportunity for the FA involved.
Even if not restrained, once a lewd behavior is observed, culprit should be moved back and all passengers should be cleared from that row and if nowhere to move then atleast re arrange seating so that there is no passenger of opposite sex near the culprit.
In my book if the events occurred as described then this is a Delta fail.
May 1, 2017, 12:08 pm
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FlyerTalk:
Can we discuss this here? What tortious claims does the passenger have against an airline when another passenger assaults him/her? Does the airline have a duty of care to physically protect one passenger from another passenger?
Can we discuss this here? What tortious claims does the passenger have against an airline when another passenger assaults him/her? Does the airline have a duty of care to physically protect one passenger from another passenger?
This is utterly false. Attorneys are both legally and ethically limited on the amount/percentage of a client's award that they can take as a contingent fee. No one gets a 50%+ fee.
May 1, 2017, 12:15 pm
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This is an alleged case of negligence. The question is whether the conduct or actions causing the harm to the customer were "reasonably foreseeable" by DL and whether DL had notice that such conditions existed or were likely to exist. Given that the passenger was observed by airline personnel doing such actions prior to the assault on the other passenger, I think DL would face liability in a jury setting. Remember, a jury would decide this in a civil ($$$) context, and juries aren't going to have much sympathy for airlines these days.
This is utterly false. Attorneys are both legally and ethically limited on the amount/percentage of a client's award that they can take as a contingent fee. No one gets a 50%+ fee.
This is utterly false. Attorneys are both legally and ethically limited on the amount/percentage of a client's award that they can take as a contingent fee. No one gets a 50%+ fee.
May 1, 2017, 12:33 pm
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The foreseeable cause is easier to argue than establishing duty of care. A written contract doesn't exist that claims Delta will physically protect one passenger from another passenger, and I don't think a law exists either. Before deciding whether the passenger's actions were foreseeable, did Delta even have a duty of care to the assault victim to physically protect her (i.e. use physical force against the defendant)?
Think of it in a slip and fall context. The grocery store doesn't have a duty of care to prevent customers from negligent/aggressive acts of other customers --- however, it does have a duty to protect customers from conditions that they know or reasonably should know could cause harm to a customer.
That is where DL arguably failed in this one. If the staff knew that the offending passenger presented a foreseeable risk of harm to another passenger and took no measures to prevent that foreseeable harm from occurring, I could see how a jury (and the law) could reasonably hold DL liable.
DL's best and only defense would be that it had no reasonable means of preventing the harm from occurring, despite knowing the risk was there. They would have to convince a jury that there was no place else to reasonably and safely put the offending passenger (or otherwise reasonably and safely restrain him) that could have "more likely than not" prevented the harm from occurring.
May 1, 2017, 1:40 pm
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But that's not the topic here.
May 1, 2017, 1:45 pm
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