United States Ninth Circuit

In an action brought by airline passengers or their survivors against Continental Airlines and a number of other air carriers claiming damages for failure to warn of the risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) on international flights, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) under established precedent, developing DVT in-flight is not an "accident," and failing to warn about its risk is not an "event" for purposes of liability for an "accident" under Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention; and 2) neither requests by public agencies, nor airlines' public commitment to safety, converted the failure to warn about DVT into an event or accident.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/12/2008
• Decided 07/30/2008
• Published 07/30/2008

Judges

• PER CURIAM., Before: FLETCHER and PAMELA ANN RYMER, Circuit Judges, and KEVIN THOMAS DUFFY, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Clay Robbins, Magana Cathcart & McCarthy, Los Angeles, CA, (argued);  Randy Baker, Seattle, WA, for the plaintiffs-appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• William Boyce, Fulbright & Jaworski, Houston, TX;  Richard Grotch, Coddington, Hicks & Danforth, Redwood City, CA;  Samantha D. Hilton, Kenney & Markowitz, San Francisco, CA;  Charles L. Coleman, Holland & Knight, San Francisco, CA;  Clem C. Trischler, Pietragallo, Bosick & Gordon, Pittsburgh, PA (argued);  Sara A. Simmons, Law Offices of Sara A. Simmons, San Francisco, CA;  Kevin R. Sutherland, Clyde & Co. US, Woodland Hills, CA;  Diane Westwood Wilson, New York, NY;  Jeffrey A. Worthe, Santa Ana, CA;  Rod D. Margo (argued), Jennifer J. Johnston, Scott D. Cunningham, Condon & Forsyth LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for the defendants-appellees.