Fact issue exists where airline agents may have taken handbag away from passenger without issuing baggage check

Law Reporter, Dec 2004

Salis v. Ghana Airways, 780 N.Y.S.2d 627 (App. Div. 2004).

Summary judgment was improper where a fact issue existed as to whether airline personnel took a passenger's bag and did not give him a baggage check, or whether the passenger abandoned the bag, a New York appellate court held.

Here, Salis was attempting to board a flight when airline personnel told him that his handbag was too large to be a carry-on item. Salis maintains that airline agents seized the bag from him and did not issue a claim check, while the airline contends that Salis abandoned the bag.

Salis sued the airline to recover damages for the handbag, as well as other property and personal injury claims. The trial court granted defendant summary judgment.

Reversing on die lost-handbag claim, the appellate court held that the trial court erred in applying the limitation of damages in the Warsaw Convention, 49 U.S.C. § 40105, to this case. The Warsaw Convention expressly makes this limitation unavailable where a carrier takes a passenger's bag without issuing a baggage claim, the court noted. Here, there is a factual dispute as to whether the airline took the bag or plaintiff abandoned it. Accordingly, summary judgment was improper, the court said.

Plaintiff's Counsel

Mohammed Owolabi Salis, New York, N.Y., pro se