ihdihd

Thanks in advance for any response.

I left my bag on an A/C on a flight that contained a laptop. After calling the next morning I was told the bag was available. Went to pick up and the laptop, electronics other items went missing from the bag. Filed a police report and activated lojack. Laptop was recovered, unusable, from one of the employees at baggage service 3 months later. There is a confession, grand larceny and felony posession charges, and firing from the airline.

Now I'm down some electronics, worth about $5K, about $3K in data recovery services, and am going to be at half capacity for the forseeable future because of the massive data loss that wasn't recovered (last full backup was 6 months ago). This isn't to mention the non-economic harm imposed from the whole ordeal.

Anyone have a similar experience where what happened and who did it was clear and a law suit was put in order?

I'm in medical education, so I know nothing about legal things, other than what I would think makes sense.

Appeciate any precedent/advice you can offer.

videomaker

I'm not sure about the legal aspects and liabilities here. But it would seem to me that some of the pain and responsibility belongs to the OP for leaving the bag on a plane and not having current backups of important computer data.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sympathetic--and good for lojack for at least finding the laptop. It appears the airline took action and certainly did not condone the actions of the (former) employee.

I've left things on airplanes before and never saw them again. But I carry separate, all-risk insurance on major electronic stuff, so there's no hassle if any of it goes missing. It seems that would be essential for anyone carrying that much gear. But as always, hindsight is 20-20.

(There's no mention of it specifically, but I assume this was an AA plane and that's why it's posted in this forum.)

ihdihd

Thanks for the reply.

The question isn't so much about what the OP (me) did, but the responsibility the airline has for its employee actions. Since this employee clearly took advantage of their position to their benefit, is the airline responsible for those actions while the employees are on duty? In other words, AA was given the bag, and while in its posession, things started to go missing while it was supposedly secured in baggage storage.

3Cforme

The Contract of Carriage will tell the OP he is SOL, as the airline has no responsibility for electronics (or jewelry, bearer bonds, etc.). But people post all the time looking to be told what they want to hear. If one has money, lawyers will play that game.

videomaker

That's going to take a good lawyer to give you an answer--probably even beyond any legal advice you might get here on FT.

videomaker

Correct on checked baggage, but this sounds like it was carried on and left behind.

mvoight

This is probably the wrong place to ask for legal advice.
I would suggest contacting an attorney
In many cases an employer can be liable for the illegal actions of an employee.

I can't imagine leaving a bag with a laptop plus $5K in electronics.
I agree with another poster regarding the data recovery. For $100, or less, you can buy an external hard drive that could back up the complete files of most laptops. It seems to be a lot better deal than $3K in recovery charges, plus losing the data for 3 months or more.

Have you no insurance for any of this?

tom911

You might also start a thread in the OMNI Legal Clinic. There's a number of lawyers over there that might not see this thread on the AA forum that might offer direction.

benzguy80

sorry if this seems harsh OP but you share in the culpability IMO. I don't backup often enough, many of us don't, but my stuff can be restored.

hopefully several of us will see this and remember to safeguard the data on our laptops.

LCS

Go after the thief. He/she is liable to you. You may even get some restitution as part of the criminal case

hillrider

Painless cheap online backup on Amazon S3: www.jungledisk.com.

I am not affiliated with the company but it's the first tool I've ever used that allows me to be backed up every night and have all my data physically separate from the computers (so I don't lose both at the same time in case of fire/flood/earthquake/tornado hits my house/office) and that does not cost an arm and a leg.

jlsw7

You haven't said where all of this happened and that may affect the answer. In any case, you have suffered a significant loss and I would think the best way forward would be to intimate a claim to AA and then, if you are not satisfied with the response, consult a lawyer in the appropriate jurisdiction. I would get advice before intimating a claim to the thief. Any legal advice you receive on here will probably be worth what you have paid for it and cannot safely be relied on.

gemac

First, not a lawyer here. To have a successful claim against AA, you would have to allege some type of negligent behavior on their part. For example, if an employee had a prior history of theft convictions, if AA knew that and they still put the employee in a position where passengers were required to entrust their valuables to him, that would be negligent. The question that the court would have to answer is "Did the airline exercise reasonable prudence?".


Second, if the party you are suing is found negligent, the court will assess how much of the problem was caused by your negligence and how much was caused by the negligence of the airline. This is where the question does become what the OP (you) did. You valued the data on your computer in excess of $6,000 (because you were willing to pay $3,000 to recover half of it), but you only backed it up once every 6 months or more. The bag contained at least $5,000 of electronic equipment and at least $6,000 in data, and you left it on an airplane. The court would weigh your negligence against AA's negligence. If, for example, they found that the problem was caused 90% by your negligence and 10% by AA's negligence, they would render a judgement in your favor for 10% of your provable loss, in this case $800.

In general, the airline is not responsible for the employee's actions while he is on duty, they are only responsible for exercising reasonable caution and prudence. You are not alleging that they did anything that was not reasonably cautious.

It is pretty clear here that your logical claim is against the employee. Unfortunately for you, the employee is unlikely to have sufficient assets to recover your losses. I know that in many similar cases, it seems to be the American way to find an innocent party nearby who has money, and sue them to see if you can get some money. I do not agree with that, and so would not recommend suing AA unless you have more information indicating negligence on their part than you have shared. I would think you would have better chances of success if you filed a claim with your insurance company. You do carry business insurance, right?

JDiver

I think putting the bad guy away and having him terminated from his job is sufficient balm to soothe the savaged ego; restitution is clearly in order here, though I wonder where the theif will secure the money.

I suspect AA will be pretty clear of liability (OP temporarily abandoned his property, disclaimers, C of C, Warsaw and Montreal, etc.) not to mention, probably have more lawyers and deeper pockets than the OP, and that all counts for something. Still, if wanting to pursue further, consult an attorney where this happened.

I'm also glad the OP had lojack and recovered the device - but I also think it is irresponsible to 1) be uninsured, 2) back up once in six months, so there is, in terms of the data and money, some contributory negligence (not necessarily in strict legal terminology, in actions.)

JDiver

This thread does not pertain to American Airlines sensu stricto, so it will be relocated to Travel Buzz. Please follow it there.

/Moderator