Reference no: EM133214697

Express your agreement or disagreement with this analysis and clearly state your reasons.

When assessing the airline's liability for the domestic passenger, it is dependent on the airline's failure to meet the required standard of care (negligence claim).  You would look at the required elements of a negligence claim (duty, breach of duty, proximate cause, and damages) and when assessing the duty, the airline owes the highest degree of care. However, with regard to the international passengers, the airline is strictly liable for the first 128,821 SDR of provable damages. It is important to understand that under the Montreal Convention, the passengers are not limited to (or capped at) the 128,821 SDR.  There is no "cap" on the international passenger's recovery, it is just that for anything above the 128,821 SDR strict liability amount, the airline can defend itself, and will not be liable if it can prove it was not at fault (which is unlikely in this scenario). It is also important to note that the burden of proof is on the international airline to prove it was not at fault rather than on the plaintiffs to prove fault (this is different from the domestic passengers who have the burden of proving the airline's negligence.

I'd like to clarify the meaning of "strict liability." When strict liability applies, this means that a defendant is automatically or absolutely liable and there are no defenses available to them.  Therefore, the airline could not try to argue that it was not negligent or that the plaintiff contributed to the accident and that its liability should be limited.  The benefit of this to the international passenger is that there is no need to prove carelessness or fault by the airline.  The international passenger won't have to worry about the various laws of another nation and trying to prove the airline's fault under that country's laws.  Under the Montreal Convention, an international airline will be strictly (absolutely) liable to the international passenger for up to 128,821 SDR of provable damages (no proof of fault required).  However, the international passenger is not limited to just that amount SO LONG AS the airline cannot prove itself free of fault.  So, if the international passenger proves damages in excess of 128,821 SDR, they can recover those amounts if the airline doesn't prove that it was not at fault. As stated above, this differs from the domestic passengers who have the burden of proving the airline's negligence in order to recover any damages.