On a Rule 21 motion to strike in an international air carriage action, the court determined whether the Montreal Convention governed claims arising from in-flight conduct, disembarkation, police detention, and alleged illness.
The court held article 17 applied because the pleaded incident formed a continuous chain beginning on board and continuing through disembarkation, and qualified as an accident under the Convention.
Claims for psychological harm, mental distress, and punitive or exemplary damages were held unrecoverable under article 29 and settled jurisprudence where no compensable bodily injury was pleaded for those heads.
The claim for bodily injury based on alleged severe bronchitis was permitted to proceed.
The motion was therefore granted in part with the remaining claim limited to bodily injury damages.
