Southwest Airlines sued for detaining St. Louis woman

St. Louis Daily Record & St. Louis Countian, Oct 10, 2008 by Donna Walter

A St. Louis woman says she was hospitalized and sedated against her will after Southwest Airlines officials told Las Vegas police the woman was suicidal when she only having a panic attack.

The woman, Joung Hwa Levy, who goes by "Kim," sued the airlines Wednesday in the St. Louis Circuit Court. She is represented by St. Louis lawyer James E. Godfrey Jr., of Evans & Dixon.

"It's actually a continuation of what we see on a regular basis," Godfrey said. "These airlines, without any type of real recourse, we're at their mercy.

"As the situation escalated, they began to focus on Kim because she was getting more upset. ... Nobody could understand what was going on and why it was going on."

Spokeswoman Brandy King said the airline has not received formal notice of the suit.

According to the lawsuit, Levy and her husband, Gene Levy, were on their way to Oakland, Calif., in March on a flight scheduled to stop in Las Vegas. Before takeoff, a flight attendant told Gene Levy to turn off his iPod. Levy alleges her husband complied with the request but also asked why the Federal Aviation Administration requires such devices to be turned off. The flight attendant told him she didn't have time to talk about it and then continued down the aisle, according to the suit.

Later, another flight attendant told Levy that her husband owed an apology to the first flight attendant, adding that if Gene Levy didn't apologize, "there would be trouble when the plane landed," the suit says.

In Las Vegas, the Levys were taken from the plane and detained separately, and when Kim Levy asked what was happening and why, she was told to "shut up" or risk being arrested, the petition claims. When Levy tried to stand up, she was pushed back down and fell to the floor, the suit says. That's when she had her panic attack.

Southwest Airlines employees then called the police and told them the woman was suicidal. Emergency workers shackled Levy to a stretcher and took her to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center, where she was "involuntarily hospitalized" and "shackled to a hospital bed and administered sedatives against her will," the lawsuit said. Southwest employees did not allow Levy's husband to accompany her to the hospital, the petition said.

Levy was never charged with a crime or violation, according to the suit. Gene Levy also wasn't charged, Godfrey said.

In addition, the lawsuit complains that the airline kept her from completing her trip to Oakland and forced her to find another way to the city at additional cost. "When pressed for a refund of the original ticket price, officials from Southwest Airlines glibly offered 'two cents,'" the lawsuit said.

Levy is charging Southwest Airlines with assault and battery, false imprisonment, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract.