By Caroline Hallemann, Good Housekeping
Right about now, United is probably wishing they'd offered more than $800 to volunteers willing to get off Sunday's now-infamous flight from Chicago to Louisville.
The carrier is facing a PR nightmare after a series of viral videos showed Dr. David Dao, a 69-year-old physician, being physically dragged off an airplane with visible injuries after he refused to vacate his seat.
@united @FoxNews @CNN not a good way to treat a Doctor trying to get to work because they overbooked pic.twitter.com/sj9oHk94Ik— Tyler Bridges (@Tyler_Bridges) April 9, 2017
Along with their reputation, the company's stock price took a hit, dropping over 1 percent on Tuesday, which CNN estimates is the equivalent of about $250 million.
Dao was just released from the hospital with injuries, including a
broken nose and concussion, but his lawyers have already announced plans
for a lawsuit against United and the city of Chicago.
But does he have a case?
Aviation
law expert Arthur Wolk, the founding partner of the Wolk Law Firm in
Philadelphia, thinks Dao could bring a lawsuit in the millions of
dollars.
There is nothing in that contract that gives United the right to commit an assault and battery.
[post_ads]First,
Wolk believes the airline breached its own contract by removing Dao.
Having read United's contract of carriage in its entirety, Wolk thinks
Dao could sue for assault and battery, intentional infliction of
emotional disturbance and may also have grounds to sue under various
civil rights acts, in addition to that breach of contract.
"There
is nothing in that contract that gives United the right to commit an
assault and battery on a passenger," he told me over the phone.
"This
is not a denied boarding incident, which is covered by the contract;
this man was already boarded. This is not an oversold incident, as
provided for by the contract; this airplane was not oversold — every
passenger was ticketed and had a seat.
"This
was not a situation where the passenger was unruly, committed a
criminal act, interfered with the flight crew, was incapable of being a
passenger by himself or anything of that nature, obviously until they
attempted to physically throw him off the airplane.
"So to me, United Airlines breached their own contract of carriage."
Second,
Wolk points out that if this case does go to trial, the case would come
down to the jury—another major obstacle for United. "You have to
understand what your jury pool is going to look like here. Virtually
every person who has flown on an airline flight on a regular basis feels
that airlines abuse their passengers. The mindset of the jury pool is
that they hate the way they're being treated by airlines."
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But Wolk doesn't think it will ever get that far.
"My
view here is Dr. Dao has a very good case against United Airlines," he
said, "and if I were United Airlines, I'd be all over him to try to get
him to accept a reasonable compensation and to go away."
But
if Dao neglected to settle, and did bring the case to court, just how
much could he sue for? We asked Wolk if he thinks the sum would be in
the millions, to which he responded, "I think so. I would say that this
is the kind of thing that could go anywhere because the video is
extremely disturbing, and I just think it's so reprehensible."
We have reached out to Dao's lawyers, and will update should we receive a response.
