King v. American Airlines, Inc.

• Decision Date: 22 March 2002
• Docket Number: Docket No. 01-7611.
• Citation: 284 F.3d 352
• Parties: George KING and Judy King, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Flagship Airlines, Inc., AMR Corporation, AMR Eagle Holding Corporation and American Eagle Airlines, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

284 F.3d 352

George KING and Judy King, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Flagship Airlines, Inc., AMR Corporation, AMR Eagle Holding Corporation and American Eagle Airlines, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 01-7611.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued January 7, 2002.

Decided March 22, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Robert N. Isseks, Middletown, New York, for plaintiffs-appellants.

David S. Rutherford, Renzulli & Rutherford, LLP, New York, New York, for defendants-Appellees.

Before JACOBS, F.I. PARKER, and SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judges.

SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs-appellants George and Judy King appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Hurd, J.), dismissing their discrimination claim as untimely. The Kings, an African American couple possessing confirmed tickets for a flight from Miami to the Grand Bahamas, alleged that defendants bumped them from an overbooked flight because of their race. The defendants moved pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c) for judgment on the pleadings, asserting that the Kings' claim fell within the scope of the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Transportation by Air, Oct. 12, 1929 ("the Warsaw Convention" or "Convention"), 49 Stat. 3000 (1934), 137 L.N.T.S. 11, reprinted in 49 U.S.C. § 40105 note, and thus was untimely under the Convention's two-year statute of limitations. The plaintiffs countered that the three-year statute of limitations applicable to 42 U.S.C. § 1981 actions governed their suit. The district court held that the Kings' discriminatory bumping claim was preempted by Article 19 of the Warsaw Convention, and granted the defendants' motion.

We hold that discrimination claims that arise in the course of embarking on an aircraft are preempted by Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention. We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.

BACKGROUND

Construing the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, as we must on this motion for judgment on the pleadings, we accept the following allegations as true. On April 25, 1997, the Kings purchased two round-trip tickets for a flight from New York City to Freeport, Grand Bahamas. The plaintiffs contracted with the defendants for transportation on American Airlines Flight 1819, departing from John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 26, 1997. The flight was scheduled to arrive at Miami International Airport at 3:08 p.m., at which time the plaintiffs were to transfer to American Airlines Flight 5777, operated by Flagship Airlines. Flight 5777 was scheduled to leave for Freeport at 4:10 p.m. that same afternoon.

The plaintiffs traveled to Miami as planned, but were informed upon arrival that their flight to Freeport was overbooked. The Kings refused an offer of monetary compensation to give up their seats. Nonetheless, after the Kings had been permitted to board the vehicle that was to transport the passengers from the terminal to the aircraft, agents of the defendants confiscated their boarding passes and informed the Kings that they were being "bumped" from the flight involuntarily. The Kings were the only African Americans with confirmed reservations who had not relinquished their seats voluntarily. Moreover, all the white passengers, including those who did not have confirmed reservations, were allowed to board Flight 5777.

The Kings commenced the present action on July 24, 2000, alleging that they had been racially discriminated against in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981, the Federal Aviation Act ("FAA"), 49 U.S.C. § 41310(a), and various other state and federal laws. The district court concluded that the Kings' suit, grounded upon an act of discriminatory bumping, fell within the scope of Article 19 of the Warsaw Convention. King v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 146 F.Supp.2d 159, 162-63 (N.D.N.Y.2001). As the Kings had not brought this action within the Convention's limitations period, the court dismissed the claim. Id.

DISCUSSION

I. Standard of Review

We review a judgment on the pleadings de novo. See Burnette v. Carothers, 192 F.3d 52, 56 (2d Cir.1999). "In deciding a Rule 12(c) motion, we apply the same standard as that applicable to a motion under Rule 12(b)(6), accepting the allegations contained in the complaint as true and drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party." Id.

II. The Relevant Statute of Limitations

In determining the timeliness of a section 1981 claim, federal courts generally apply the forum state's statute of limitations rules for personal injury claims. Goodman v. Lukens Steel Co., 482 U.S. 656, 660-61, 107 S.Ct. 2617, 96 L.Ed.2d 572 (1987); Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 266-67, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985); see also Arneil v. Ramsey, 550 F.2d 774, 779 (2d Cir.1977) (holding that federal courts apply the law of the forum state, including the forum's borrowing rules, to determine the applicable statute of limitations when the federal statute does not contain a limitations period). The Kings filed this action just under three years after the alleged discriminatory bumping. Thus, they would normally be able to maintain their section 1981 claim regardless of whether New York's three-year statute of limitations, see Mian v. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Sec. Corp., 7 F.3d 1085, 1087 (2d Cir.1993), or Florida's four-year statute of limitations, see Baker v. Gulf & Western Indus., Inc., 850 F.2d 1480, 1482 (11th Cir.1988), governed this action.

Because of the Warsaw Convention's preemptive effect, however, the Kings' suit must be brought in accordance with the Convention's terms if their claims fall within the scope of the Convention. The Warsaw Convention imposes a two-year statute of limitations.¹ The Kings do not dispute that, should the Warsaw Convention's statute of limitations apply, their suit would be untimely. Thus, the sole question confronting us is whether the Kings' action is preempted by the Warsaw Convention.

III. Preemption Under Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention

The Warsaw Convention was crafted during the Second International Conference on Private Aeronautical Law of 1929 in order to foster the growth of the nascent commercial airline industry. Eastern Airlines, Inc. v. Floyd, 499 U.S. 530, 546, 111 S.Ct. 1489, 113 L.Ed.2d 569 (1991). "The cardinal purpose of the Warsaw Convention ... is to achieve uniformity of rules governing claims arising from international air transportation." El Al Israel Airlines, Ltd. v. Tseng, 525 U.S. 155, 169, 119 S.Ct. 662, 142 L.Ed.2d 576 (1999) (internal quotation and citations omitted); see also Shah v. Pan Am. World Servs., Inc., 148 F.3d 84, 98 (2d Cir.1998) (describing the problems facing air carriers when they are subjected to a multiplicity of municipal laws and are unable to predict in advance what law will govern in the event of an accident). To this end, the Warsaw Convention created a comprehensive liability system to serve as the exclusive mechanism for remedying injuries suffered in the course of the "international transportation of persons, baggage, or goods performed by aircraft." Warsaw Convention, Art. 1; see also Tseng, 525 U.S. at 169-70, 119 S.Ct. 662. This remedial system is designed to protect air carriers against catastrophic, crippling liability by establishing monetary caps on awards and restricting the types of claims that may be brought against carriers, while accommodating the interests of injured passengers by creating a presumption of liability against the carrier when a claim satisfies the substantive requirements of the Convention. Tseng, 525 U.S. at 169-70, 119 S.Ct. 662; Wallace v. Korean Air, 214 F.3d 293, 296 (2d Cir.2000); see also Sidhu v. British Airways plc, [1997] 1 All E.R. 193, 204 (U.K.H.L.).

Uniformity requires, however, that passengers be denied access to the profusion of remedies that may exist under the laws of a particular country, so that they must bring their claims under the terms of the Convention or not at all. Tseng, 525 U.S. at 161, 175-76, 119 S.Ct. 662. Recognizing this, the Supreme Court in Tseng held that the Convention's preemptive effect on local law extends to all causes of action for injuries to persons or baggage suffered in the course of international airline transportation, regardless of whether a claim actually could be maintained under the provisions of the Convention. Id. at 174-76, 119 S.Ct. 662.

In reaching this decision, the Tseng Court relied heavily upon a recent amendment to Article 24 of the Convention, which addresses the preemptive effect of the treaty. The original version of Article 24 provided that:

(1) In the cases covered by articles 18 and 19 any action for damages, however founded, can only be brought subject to the conditions and limits set out in this convention.

(2) In the cases covered by article 17 the provisions of the preceding paragraph shall also apply, without prejudice to the questions as to who are the persons who have the right to bring suit and what are their respective rights.

49 U.S.C.A. § 40105 note. The language of Article 24 was altered in several respects by Montreal Protocol No. 4 to Amend the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air ("Montreal Protocol"), which became effective in the United States in March of 1999. See 144 Cong. Rec. S11059-02 (Sept. 28, 1998). The most significant change was the elimination of the confusing "cases covered by"² phrase and the substitution of more inclusive language:

In the carriage of passengers and baggage, any action for damages, however founded, can only be brought subject to the conditions and limits set out in this Convention ....

S. Exec. Rep. No. 105-20, at 29 (1998) (emphasis added). The ratification of the Montreal Protocol post-dated the events giving rise to the action in Tseng. The United States, however, argued before the Tseng Court as amicus...