International Air Law

Assignment : Solicitor’s advice

Instructions You are asked to provide solicitor’s advice by letter to a client on the legal implications of the fact situation set out below.

Purpose of assignment The purpose of this assignment is to gauge your level of understanding of principles in the relevant air law (liability) conventions, and to test your ability to apply those

principles to a factual situation.
Marking criteria
The following criteria and weighting will be used in marking this assignment:
? identify legal issues (0.2)
? identify and apply the appropriate air law principles to those issues (0.4)
? provide advice to your client on how to resolve the case(0.2)
? the academic quality of your advice to your client (0.2)
The academic quality of your essay will be assessed on:
? your ability to demonstrate relevant research into the subject matter.
? the logic of your reasoning and the strength of the arguments that you develop.
? the construction of your essay including grammar, readability, length and appropriate referencing.
Submission details Please submit the assignment electronically through the assignment drop box in the Moodle site for this unit.

You are a solicitor practising law in Melbourne, with responsibility in your firm for compensation claims. Respond to Mrs Smith’s letter by writing an advice to her on her entitlement to

compensation.

Mrs Smith is an elderly British national who flew to Brisbane from London via Singapore to visit her son and his family for a holiday. She purchased her ticket on Qantas from a British Airways

Travel Agent. She boarded the Qantas flight in London on the evening of 2nd August 2013 and was advised that she would need to join a connecting Qantas flight in Singapore on 3rd August that

would take her to Brisbane. Departure from London was delayed due to a warning light that needed to be checked by engineers. The light was subsequently found to be faulty and the plane

eventually departed for Singapore some four hours behind schedule. The plane was not able to make up any of the lost time and in fact, due to head winds, arrived at Terminal 1 Changi Airport in

Singapore more than 4 hours later than scheduled.

Due to the late arrival in Singapore, Mrs Smith missed her connecting flight to Brisbane. She and other transit passengers were told to proceed to a transfer desk in Terminal 1 to arrange for

alternative flights to their destinations. This she did, but not without some difficulty. Being elderly and tired from the flight, and not knowing her way around the airport, she became lost and

confused. She was also carrying a cabin bag which contained some presents for her grandchildren. The bag weighed some 6 kilograms but was not in excess of cabin baggage requirements. Mrs

Smith had to carry the bag some 300 metres altogether to the transfer counter because she could not find a trolley to put it on. In trying to carry her bag over such a distance, Mrs Smith

strained a back muscle.

At the transit desk, Qantas advised Mrs Smith that they had found a seat for her on a Singapore Airlines flight to Brisbane. This necessitated her transferring from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 on the

automated sky-train, which aggravated her back injury and also caused her further anxiety because she was afraid of losing her way between the terminals. Qantas ground staff did not offer her

any assistance. She remained very agitated and upset, and was anxious to get to Brisbane to be with her son. She eventually reached the gate lounge at Terminal 2, where she had to wait some

time before the flight boarded. (By this time it was almost midnight Singapore time on 3rd August.) Her back was, by this time, causing her severe discomfort.

The flight eventually took off at about 1.00 a.m. on the 4th. Some two hours after the plane left Singapore, and having been unable to get to sleep, Mrs Smith noticed that the ‘fasten seat belts’

sign was off and got up to go to the toilet. While she was making her way down the aisle (in some discomfort from her back), the aircraft hit severe turbulence. Mrs Smith was thrown against a

nearby seat and ended up falling on the floor very awkwardly. She broke her arm in the fall and aggravated the back injury. Airline staff were quickly on the scene, found her a first class cubicle

and made her as comfortable as they could for the rest of the journey. The plane continued on to Brisbane.

The flight reached Brisbane at 10 a.m. on 4th August (Brisbane time). This was some 10 hours later than the Qantas flight on which she was originally scheduled. On arrival in Brisbane, Mrs Smith

was taken immediately to hospital to have her arm treated. Her son, who had been at the airport to meet her, went with her. While still in casualty, she began to experience severe pain in her

right leg. Upon mentioning this to hospital staff, she was immediately examined and the examining doctor concluded that she had developed deep vein thrombosis in her leg. She remained in

hospital for some time, was released just last week, and has been largely incapacitated for much of her holiday.

After discussing the matter with her son, and in an attempt to sort the issue out before she returns to London, Mrs Smith decided while still in hospital to seek compensation from Qantas and

Singapore Airlines. Her son helped her to write a letter to the two airlines, asking for compensation and setting out the facts of what happened. Both airlines have responded with what appears

to be a standard form letter saying that they do not accept any liability for the injuries suffered or for the delay. Mrs Smith has written to you (her son’s solicitor) for legal advice as to her

entitlement to compensation and for guidance as to how she should proceed from here.

Advise her.

For the purposes of this assignment please assume that Australia, Singapore and the UK are all parties to the 1999 Montreal Convention and that the Convention has been passed into law in all

three jurisdictions. In your answer, in addition to advising her as to her entitlement to compensation both for delay and for injury, please also advise her on the most appropriate jurisdiction in

which to bring any court action that might be necessary.

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