West v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 89-35820

• Decision Date: 05 February 1991
• Docket Number: No. 89-35820,89-35820
• Citation: 923 F.2d 657
• Parties: William D. WEST, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NORTHWEST AIRLINES, INC., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 657

923 F.2d 657

59 USLW 2185

William D. WEST, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NORTHWEST AIRLINES, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 89-35820.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted July 13, 1990.

Decided Sept. 11, 1990.

As Amended on Denial of Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Feb.

5, 1991.

Cornish F. Hitchcock, Public Citizen Litigation Group, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellant.

Jon Metropoulos, Browning, Kaleczyc, Berry & Hoven, Helena, Mont., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana.

Before HUG, D.W. NELSON and BRUNETTI, Circuit Judges.

D.W. NELSON, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff-appellant, William D. West (West) purchased a ticket to travel on Northwest Airlines, Inc., (Northwest) from Great Falls, Montana to Arlington, Virginia. Northwest overbooked West's flight and refused to allow West to board the plane. West brought this action against Northwest for breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing under Montana law. The district court granted summary judgment for Northwest on the ground that West's claim was preempted by the Federal Aviation Act. We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part to the district court to determine if West has a meritorious claim for compensatory damages under Montana law.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On September 3, 1986, William D. West purchased a non-refundable, non-changeable ticket to travel on Northwest from Great Falls, Montana to Arlington, Virginia. His flight was scheduled to depart Great Falls at 1:30 p.m. and to arrive in Arlington at 9:00 p.m. on October 7, 1986. West confirmed his scheduled departure with his travel agent on October 6, 1986.

Between the date of purchase and the scheduled departure date, Northwest decided to reduce the size of its aircraft from a Boeing 727, which carries 146 passengers, to a DC 9 aircraft, which carries 78 passengers. Northwest did not inform West or any of Northwest's sales agents of its decision.

When West arrived at the check-in gate, a Northwest employee informed him the flight was overbooked. Northwest attempted to make room for West and other passengers by requesting volunteers to deplane in exchange for certain payments. However, only three people accepted, and West could not obtain a seat on this flight.

Northwest then offered West an alternative flight that would arrive at Dulles Airport, which is near West's destination, at 3:00 a.m. the next morning. West declined this alternative flight because of its inconvenience and rescheduled his flight to Arlington for approximately two weeks later.

West subsequently filed claims in state court for breach of the covenant of good Northwest then moved for summary judgment on the grounds that the period for bringing a claim under Section 404(b), upon which West based his federal claim, had expired and that West's state claim was preempted by the FAA. On September 28, 1989, the district court granted Northwest's motion for summary judgment on both of the above grounds. West timely appealed only the issue of whether the district court erred in dismissing West's state law claim on the ground that it was preempted by the FAA.

faith and fair dealing under Montana law and for unjust discrimination under section 404(b) of the Federal Aviation Act (FAA), seeking both compensatory and punitive damages. Northwest successfully petitioned the United States District Court to remove the case to the federal court on the basis of diversity of citizenship.

DISCUSSION

I. Standard of Review

A grant of summary judgment is reviewed de novo to determine, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, whether there existed any genuine issue of material fact and whether the district court correctly applied the relevant substantive law. Tzung v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., 873 F.2d 1338, 1339-40 (9th Cir.1989).

II. Federal Preemption

Northwest argues that the federal government's role in regulating the air transportation industry under the FAA preempts Montana's common law duty to deal fairly and in good faith. In examining this issue, we note that when Congress legislates in a field traditionally occupied by the states, such as common law tort and contract remedies in business relationships, there is a presumption against finding pre-emption of state law. See California v. ARC America Corp, 490 U.S. 93, 100-01, 109 S.Ct. 1661, 1665, 104 L.Ed.2d 86 (1989).

There are three ways in which preemption may occur. "Congress may preempt state law expressly by so stating in explicit terms on the face of the statute." Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n v. Abrams, 899 F.2d 1315, 1318 (2nd Cir.1990) (internal quotations omitted). Second, "when Congress intends that federal law occupy a given field, state law in that field is pre-empted." ARC America Corp, 109 S.Ct. at 1665. Finally, even if Congress has not occupied the field, "state law is nevertheless pre-empted to the extent it actually conflicts with federal law, that is, when compliance with both state and federal law is impossible." Id.

A. Explicit Preemption

The district court found that Congress in the FAA expressly preempted West's state law claims. Specifically the court held that in section 1305(a)(1), "Congress intended to preempt all state statutes and common law rules which affect rates or services involving air travel." We disagree, finding that Congress did not expressly preempt West's state law claim.

Section 1305(a)(1) of the FAA provides that no state "shall enact or enforce any law, rule, regulation, standard, or other provision having the force and effect of law relating to rates, routes, or services of any air carrier." 49 U.S.C.App. Sec. 1305(a)(1) (App.Supp. V 1987) (emphasis added).

Appellant asserts first that section 1305 does not apply because "services" does not include airline boarding practices but is limited in meaning to a description of the types of operations which airlines offer, such as scheduled passenger service, scheduled cargo service, mail service and other specialized services. Thus, under West's reading, section 1305 would preempt state law only when the state law affected the types of services offered. We reject this interpretation.

"The primary rule of statutory construction is to ascertain and give effect to the plain meaning of the language used." Hughes Air Corp. v. Public Utilities Com'n, 644 F.2d 1334, 1337 (9th Cir.1981); Watt v. Alaska, 451 U.S. 259, 265, 101 S.Ct. 1673, 1677, 68 L.Ed.2d 80 (1981). In this case, we believe that the plain meaning of Moreover, the Ninth Circuit has already rejected West's definition of services in Hingson v. Pacific Southwest Airlines, 743 F.2d 1408, 1415 (9th Cir.1984). In Hingson the court held that regulation of air carrier seating policies involved regulation of services within the meaning of section 1305(a)(1). Id. Thus, the court did not define "services" as merely types of services such as cargo or air ambulance but defined it to include services to customers. Following Hingson, we find that Northwest's passenger services, including boarding, are airline services within the meaning of section 1305.

"services" clearly includes services provided to customers such as the boarding services at issue here. If Congress had intended to limit the word "services" to something other than its common usage, it could easily have used the words "types of services" rather than "services".

However, while we agree with Northwest that "services" include boarding policies, we disagree with Northwest and the district court that "law[s] ... relating to airline services" encompass all state laws that affect airline services, however tangentially. This interpretation of Sec. 1305(a)(1) would unduly expand preemption and ignore our presumption against federal preemption in this traditional state law area. Instead, we find that Section 1305(a)(1) preempts claims only when the underlying statute or regulation itself relates to airline services, regardless of whether the claim arises from a factual setting involving airline services. Thus, state laws that merely have an effect on airline services are not preempted. See People of State of N.Y. ex rel. Abrams v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 728 F.Supp. 162 (S.D.N.Y.1989).

Our analysis is consistent with Ninth Circuit case law. In Hingson, a blind person who was not permitted to sit in certain seats during a Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) flight brought suit against PSA. Hingson alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress and a claim arising under California Civil Code Section 54.1, which required that handicapped persons be given "full and equal access" to accommodations of all airplanes. Hingson, 743 F.2d at 1411, 1415. The Ninth Circuit held that Hingson's claims under California Civil Code Section 54.1 were preempted by section 1305(a)(1). The court reasoned that Section 54.1 was a regulation directly relating to services within the meaning of Section 1305(a)(1). Id. at 1415. The court, however, held that Hingson's claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress was not preempted. Id. This decision is consistent with our reading of section 1305(a)(1). Hingson's emotional distress claim did involve the airline's passenger services; however, the...