KARACHI: Airlines told to pay for passengers suffering
By Shujaat Ali Khan
KARACHI, April 12: A confirmed ticket imposes a duty and an obligation on the air carrier concerned to fly the holder to the contracted destination on the date and time specified therein, the Sindh High Court declared on Monday.
An airline failing in its obligation to carry a holder of a valid and confirmed ticket without any just cause exposes itself to adverse legal consequences under the Warsaw Convention of 1929 and its Hague Protocol of 1955, which have both been incorporated in the municipal law by the Carriage by Air (International Convention) Act, 1966, the IATA General Conditions of Carriage, the law of contract or even the law of tort, Justice Mushir Alam held in a 42-page judgment allowing a suit instituted by Professor Dr S. Haroon Ahmed, President of the Pakistan Association of Mental Health, against Emirate Airline, British Airways, Passage Travels and Tours and American Express (travel agents).
The professor sued the four defendants severally and jointly for Rs10 million in damages and compensation for denying him and his son, Irfan Haroon, boarding on an Emirates flight despite confirmed reservations on tickets issued by British Airways.
He was suffering from trigeminal neuralgia and was proceeding for treatment by Dr Earnest Mathews of the Trigeminal Pain Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA. He had an appointment with Dr Mathews on April 16, 1999.
Accompanied by his son as an attendant, he was due to fly on April 14, 1999, on confirmed tickets issued by British Airways on April 13. Since British Airways did not operate from Karachi, they were to be flown to Dubai by the Emirates as agent to the BA. From Dubai, they were booked on a BA flight.
The Emirates staff at the Karachi airport, however, refused to let them board the Dubai flight, claiming that they had 'no reservations'. When they produced computer slips evidencing confirmation of seats, the staff changed its stance and said 'the seats were not reconfirmed 72 hours before the flight'.
The professor failed to keep his appointment with the US doctor, and the pain, anguish and torture caused by denied boarding worsened his condition. His son proceeded to the United States to obtain appointment from another consultant. The plaintiff travelled subsequently accompanied by his wife, Anis Haroon.
After noting the contentions raised by the counsel and the evidence produced by the parties, Justice Alam held that there was no doubt that the plaintiff and his son possessed confirmed tickets.
Boarding was denied for extraneous considerations and not because of non-confirmation 72 hours earlier of tickets issued only 24 hours before the flight.
The plaintiff, he observed, undoubtedly suffered physically, mentally and financially on account of denied boarding and the suffering was intensified by the fact that the refusal was without reasonable cause.
The airline was responsible for the plaintiff's suffering. Any person, what to speak of a person of the plaintiff's standing and stature, the judgment said, would be shocked when he is told that he cannot proceed abroad for treatment despite valid tickets and travel documents.
Decreeing the suit against the airline, the court ordered reimbursement of Rs243,670 incurred by the plaintiff on the tickets of his wife and son and his own. A sum of $17,928 was decreed for medical expenses incurred by the plaintiff in the United States before his treatment by Dr Mathews.
General damages for non-pecuniary loss on account of physical and mental agonies, humiliation and defamation were awarded in the sum of $500 per day for 30 days.
"The suit stand decreed in the sums above with equalizer at the rate of 6 per cent from the date of institution of the suit till the realization, together with costs, of the decretal amount as against defendant number two (Emirates Airlines) whereas the suit is dismissed against defendants one, three and four (British Airways, Passage Travels and American Express)," the judgment concluded.
Advocates Akhtar Hussain, Khalid Rehman, Nizam Ali Khan, and Dara S. Shaikh represented the plaintiff, BA, the Emirates and American Express. Passage Travels chose not to defend.
