Al-Watan v. American Airlines, Inc.
| Decision Date | 03 September 2009 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 07-14687. |
| Citation | 658 F.Supp.2d 816 |
| Parties | David AL-WATAN, Talal Cholagh, Ali Alzerej, Hasan Al-Zerej, Mohammed Al-Saedy, and Hussein Alsalih, Plaintiffs, v. AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
Lawrence T. Garcia, Allen Brothers, Detroit, MI, for Plaintiffs.
Joseph M. White, Randolph D. Phifer, Phifer & White, Detroit, MI, for Defendant.
ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
On October 31, 2007, Plaintiffs filed the instant Complaint in this Court, alleging the following causes of action:
Count I: 49 U.S.C. § 40127, Discrimination in
Air Transportation
Count II: 42 U.S.C. § 2000a, Discrimination in
Places of Public Accommodation
Count III: 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Violation of Civil
Rights under Color of State Law
Count IV: 42 U.S.C. § 1981, Denial of Equal
Rights under the Law
[No Count V]
Count VI: False Imprisonment (state law)
Count VII: Intentional Infliction of Emotional
Distress (state law)
Count VIII: Negligence (state law)
Before the Court is Defendant American Airlines, Inc.'s Motion for Summary Judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(b), filed November 14, 2008. (Doc. No. 62). Plaintiffs responded on December 15, 2008. (Doc. No. 66). The Court heard oral argument on Defendant's Motion on February 6, 2009. For the reasons discussed below this Court GRANTS Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment.
On August 28, 2007, Plaintiffs were scheduled to take Defendant's flight 590 from San Diego to Chicago. (Compl. ¶ 8). Plaintiffs, employees of DTC, a security contractor, were returning together from a training session with the United States military. . Plaintiffs are all of Iraqi descent. (Compl. ¶ 22).
Prior to boarding the flight, a passenger on the flight, while still at the gate spoke to one of Defendant's customer service managers, Anne Grove, and to the police, to express her concern about four men, identified as Middle Eastern, who appeared to be acting suspiciously. . Grove and the police officers spoke to the passenger, who complained that the men were speaking to each other in their native language. (Grove Report). The police officers told the passenger that they had no reason to question or detain the men, as they had cleared security without incident and were not displaying any cause for intervention. (Id.) Grove reported that everything appeared normal to her, and no other passengers complained. (Id.)
Plaintiffs boarded the plane without incident, and took their seats. (Compl. ¶ 10). Plaintiffs were not assigned to sit together. (Id.)
Upon boarding, the passenger who complained at the gate decided that she did not want to take the flight, and asked to deplane. (Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. A, Plummer Dep. 35-36). She told the flight attendant that one of the men she complained about at the gate glared at her and her children, then went to the lavatory, and when he returned to his seat, he put a blanket over his head. (Id.) The passenger and her children deplaned.
Flight Attendants Ann Saltzman and Anthony Kotsonis also saw the man, Plaintiff Al-Watan, go to the lavatory at the rear of the plane shortly before departure. (Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. C, Saltzman Dep. 20-21; Ex. E, Kotsonis Dep. 28). All of the three flight attendants on board, Saltzman, Kotsonis and Lead Flight Attendant Kenneth Koc, saw Al-Watan sitting in his seat with his head covered with a blanket. (Saltzman Dep. 31-32; Kotsonis Dep. 37-38; Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. B, Koc Dep. 33). Koc testified (Koc Dep. 37). Kotsonis also testified that the blanket completely covered Al-Watan's entire body and Kotsonis believed "he was hiding or appeared to be hiding." (Kotsonis Dep. 34, 37).
Al-Watan testified that he used the bathroom while passengers were still boarding the plane, and that he had covered his head with a blanket because he was exhausted and wanted to take a nap. (Def.'s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. D, 54-55).
The flight attendants informed Captain Plummer about the passenger who deplaned, the reasons for her departure, and Al-Watan's actions. (Plummer Dep. 35-36). Thus, the flight captain was aware Al-Watan was of Middle Eastern descent. (Id. at 58). After a discussion, during which the captain asked the flight attendants whether they "felt comfortable with the situation at the time," and the flight attendants stated that they did not have a problem, the captain decided to proceed with the flight. (Id. at 35, 37).
As the plane began to taxi, Lead Flight Attendant Koc called Captain Plummer and told him that during the safety demonstration, Plaintiff Al-Watan, the individual who had been previously sitting in his seat with his head covered by a blanket, had removed the blanket and now had leaned out into the aisle and stared directly at him. (Plummer Dep. 42). Koc testified, "I was startled as I looked down the aisle to see the passenger in 14D, who was now uncovered by the blanket, leaned over with his head out in the middle of the aisle staring intently at us." (Koc Dep. 42).
Flight Attendant Saltzman also noticed Al-Watan leaning out into the aisle during the demonstration, and she "thought it was a little bit strange that we were being . . . tracked with his eyes . . . and the demeanor when we were getting the look, the evil eye, if you want to call it." (Saltzman Dep. 32).
Flight Attendant Koc called Captain Plummer a second time while the plane was taxiing and informed him that yet another man watched the flight attendants' safety demonstration in a way that disturbed the flight attendant. (Plummer Dep. 43). Flight attendant Anthony Kotsonis testified that during the demonstration he noted the passenger in seat 22F "glaring at [him] in a manner that actually scared me." (Kotsonis Dep. 38). Kotsonis stated that the passenger appeared agitated, flushed and was sweating. (Id.) Kotsonis testified that the passenger glared at him—"agitated, mean facial expression." (Id. at 39). The passenger in 22F was Mr. Wessa Althwej, who is not a party in this case. (San Diego Harbor Police Officer Adauto's Narrative Report 1). Flight Attendant Kotsonis, who had observed Althwej directly, and had also heard about Al-Watan's actions, stated that when the flight attendants talked on the plane about the staring passengers, "[i]t was like each of those [Arabic] passengers had their assigned attendant." (Id. at 3).
As the plane approached the runway, Captain Plummer received yet another call, this time from Flight Attendant Saltzman. (Plummer Dep. 44). Saltzman told the captain that a passenger, Paul Coslick, who identified himself as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, told her that he was very concerned about the man sitting next to him because the man told him that he was traveling alone, while Coslick had seen the man with a group of other passengers, including Al-Watan, at the gate. (Id. at 44, 46). Coslick testified that he noted that his seatmate came to the airport with five or six other men. (Coslick Dep. 27).
When Flight Attendant Saltzman was asked at her deposition why it alarmed her to learn that Coslick's seatmate was being inconsistent or untruthful about who he was traveling with, she testified:
Well, because from past experience people—I mean, it's well-known now that a lot of terrorist groups are well-organized, they travel in groups and try to keep their identity hidden from other people by sitting in different parts of the aircraft, which is one of the things that we are aware of as flight attendants to be on the look out for.
The passenger to whom Coslick had spoken, the subject of his complaint, was Plaintiff Talal Cholagh. (San Diego Harbor Police Officer Ada Narrative Report 2). Cholagh told the San Diego Harbor Police that after he boarded the plane the passenger behind him, Coslick, "`asked about 50 questions' about his work, where he lived, where he was going, and who he was flying with." (Id.) Cholagh also told the police that he felt uncomfortable answering the questions posed by the stranger, and did not want to give out too much information because Cholagh is a contractor for the military. (Id.)
After the third phone call, Captain Plummer decided to return the plane to the gate to "sort everything out." (Plummer Dep. 49). Captain Plummer testified that he decided to return to the gate because of the information he received in the multiple calls from the flight attendants. (Id. at 50). This included the fact that Plaintiff Al-Watan was Middle Eastern and appeared to be traveling with three other males. (Plummer Dep. 39).
Captain Plummer was processing the previously noted phone call information in the context of his 20 years of experience as a pilot. Captain Plummer testified that he decided to return to the gate out of safety concerns:
1. "I needed to know if there was any connection with these people traveling as a group but saying they were traveling alone." (Plummer Dep. 53).
2. Something this bad never happened to him in twenty years of being a pilot. "I would have to say return to the gate because of the unusual behavior that we were being exposed to that evening." (Plummer Dep. 66).
3. He felt that the safety of the plane and its passengers was threatened, "[b]y the odd behavior of the passengers that I received these calls about." (Plummer Dep. 68).
4. "Their unusual behavior and the fact that they said they were traveling alone but the were actually in a group." (Plummer Dep. 68).
5....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Wright-Phillips v. United Airlines, Inc.
...3d 550, 562-63 (E.D.N.Y. 2020); Parver v. Jet Blue Airlines Corp., 649 F. App'x 539, 543 (9th Cir. 2016); Al-Watan v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 658 F. Supp. 2d 816, 829 (E.D. Mich. 2009); Ibrahim v. Dep't of Homeland Sec., 538 F.3d 1250, 1257-58 (9th Cir. 2008); cf. Carey v. Cont'l Airlines, Inc.......
-
Syed v. Frontier Airlines, Inc.
...Air carriers have immense discretion in removing passengers or preventing them from flying. See, e.g. , Al-Watan v. Am. Airlines, Inc. , 658 F. Supp. 2d 816, 823 (E.D. Mich. 2009). As such, the Court finds Plaintiffs did not meet the "difficult burden of pleading" the "lack of justification......
-
Syed v. Frontier Airlines
...Air carriers have immense discretion in removing passengers or preventing them from flying. See, e.g., Al-Watan v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 658 F. Supp. 2d 816, 823 (E.D. Mich. 2009). As such, the Court finds Plaintiffs did not meet the "difficult burden of pleading" the "lack of justification f......