United States First Circuit

In a suit alleging that the removal of the plaintiff from a flight and subsequent denial of re-booking violated his rights to be free of race discrimination in contracting under 42 U.S.C. section 1981, a jury verdict for plaintiff is vacated and the case remanded with instructions to enter judgment for the defendant where: 1) the district court failed to instruct the jury on the statutory permission given to air carriers to remove passengers under 49 U.S.C. section 44902(b); 2) the court otherwise erroneously instructed the jury; and 3) no properly instructed jury could return a verdict against the air carrier, and therefore the district court should have granted defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/10/2008
• Published 01/10/2008

Judges

• LYNCH, Circuit Judge., Before LYNCH, Circuit Judge, CAMPBELL and STAHL, Senior Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Michael V. Powell with whom Michael A. Fitzhugh, Fitzhugh, Parker & Alvaro LLP and Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP were on brief, for appellant., Wayne A. Schrader, David A. Berg, Katherine Andrus, Air Transport Association of America, Inc., Jason B. Stavers and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher L.L.P. were on brief, for Air Transport Association of America, Inc., amicus curiae., Michael L. Foreman, Monica R. Saxena, Nicole Birch, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Vincent A. Eng, Aimee J. Baldillo, Asian American Justice Center, Cynthia Valenzuela, The Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Angela Ciccolo, Anson Asaka, NAACP, Foster Maer and Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund were on brief for Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Asian American Justice Center, Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, amici curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• Michael T. Kirkpatrick with whom Public Citizen Litigation Group, David S. Godkin, Darleen F. Cantelo and Birnbaum & Godkin, LLP were on brief, for appellee.