News

                                    
Having examined the request of the Supreme Court of Lithuania to explain the application of the Montreal Convention and the request of the Special Investigation Service of the Republic of Lithuania (STT) to award damages to be paid by the airline Air Baltic, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has stated that the air carrier may be considered responsible for the additional costs incurred and suffered due to the delay of flight which was taken by the staff of the STT under the Transport Contract.

The dispute arose over the interpretation and application of certain provisions of the Montreal Convention. The panel of judges of the Supreme Court of Lithuania, which has examined the case, took a note of the fact that it was not explicitly clear, whether the STT, the employer (the client) of the air carrier, had the right to be awarded the incurred costs to be paid by the air carrier due to the troubles suffered in relation to the flight.

According to the Court of Justice, the Montreal Convention sets forth the requirement to ensure the protection of interest of the customers of the international air carrier. The Convention may also be applicable to the persons, who may not necessarily be the passengers; therefore, the damage suffered by the aforementioned employer (client), which had concluded the Transport Contract, may fall within the scope of application of the Convention. “The fact that the contracting party having signed the Transport Contract is or is not a passenger him/herself is not an important factor in deciding, whether the air carrier has to assume the responsibility for the damages,” says the preliminary ruling. The Court has stated that the responsibility of Air Baltic for the delay of the flight may be taken on not only for the damage caused to the passenger but also for the damages incurred by the employer (client) who is the contracting party of the Transport Contract. 

According to the Special Investigation Service, a business travel of two of its employees took almost 15 hours longer than planned. For this reason, the STT had to pay additional compensation for the travel to them, and additional state social insurance contributions ‒ to the state. 

The Supreme Court of Lithuania doubted, whether the claimant as a legal entity had the right to request to be awarded damages under the Montreal Convention. Given the explanations provided by the Court of Justice, the Supreme Court of Lithuania will decide, whether the air carrier should pay the damages to the employer (client) and shall specify the amount of damages (if they are awarded).

The ruling is announced on the website of the Supreme Court of Lithuania http://www.lat.lt  (case No. 3K-7-559/2013). If you quote or distribute this information in any other way, please specify the source of information.

To see  the decision of the Court of Justice visit:

http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=174424&pageIndex=0&doclang=lt&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=595776
When quoting the above details or distributing this information in any other way, please indicate the source of information.