286 N.Y.S.2d 137 (1967)
Under the Warsaw Convention, an air carrier cannot avail itself of the Convention’s liability limitations if the passenger ticket fails to provide reasonably legible notice of those limitations.
Summary
The administrators of Mrs. Eileen Seiter’s estate sued American Airlines for wrongful death after her plane crashed. American Airlines asserted the liability limitations of the Warsaw Convention as a defense. The court considered whether the flight was “international transportation” under the Convention, and if so, whether the airline provided sufficient notice of the Convention’s liability limitations. The court found that the flight was indeed international transportation because the original ticket was for a round trip from New York to Vancouver. However, the court ultimately held that the airline could not limit its liability because the notice of the Warsaw Convention’s limitations on the ticket was printed in such small and unreadable print as to be virtually unnoticeable, thus failing to provide adequate notice to the passenger.
Facts
Mrs. Seiter purchased a round-trip airline ticket from New York City to Vancouver, Canada, with stopovers in Seattle and Chicago. Due to inclement weather, she took a bus from Vancouver to Seattle and obtained a refund for that portion of the flight. She then boarded her originally scheduled flight from Seattle to Chicago. Missing her connection in Chicago, she received a new ticket from Northwest Airlines for an American Airlines flight to New York. The American Airlines flight crashed while landing at La Guardia Airport, resulting in Mrs. Seiter’s death. The original ticket had a footnote in extremely small print referring to the Warsaw Convention’s liability rules.
Procedural History
The administrators of Mrs. Seiter’s estate brought a wrongful death action against American Airlines. American Airlines asserted an affirmative defense based on the Warsaw Convention’s limitations of liability. The Special Term upheld the defense, denying the plaintiffs’ motion to dismiss it. The Appellate Division affirmed the Special Term’s order. The New York Court of Appeals granted leave to appeal.
Issue(s)
1. Whether the flight from Chicago to New York City constituted “international transportation” under the Warsaw Convention, given that the original ticket was for international travel and the subsequent flight was issued in exchange for it.
2. Whether the airline provided sufficient notice of the Warsaw Convention’s liability limitations when the ticket contained a statement regarding the Convention in exceedingly small and fine print.
Holding
1. Yes, because the flight from Chicago to New York was performed under the original contract for international transportation, making the Convention applicable.
2. No, because the statement regarding the Warsaw Convention on the ticket was printed in such a way as to be virtually unreadable and thus failed to provide adequate notice to the passenger.
Court’s Reasoning
The court reasoned that the contract, as embodied in the original ticket, was for international transportation. Even though Mrs. Seiter took a bus from Vancouver to Seattle, the remainder of her journey was performed under the original contract, making the Warsaw Convention applicable. The court emphasized that the Convention’s emphasis on the contract “actually ‘made’ appears to have been specifically designed to prevent any subsequent intervening circumstances from affecting the result.” The court stated that the American Airlines flight was also performed under the original contract because the new ticket was part of a “complete routing” from New York to Vancouver and back, at the fare originally paid.
Regarding notice, the court found that while the ticket contained a statement about the Warsaw Convention, the print was so small that it was “almost to defy reading.” The court determined that literal compliance with Article 3(1)(e) of the Convention was insufficient when the notice was not reasonably decipherable. The court cited Eck v. United Arab Airlines, emphasizing that a “strictly literal reading” of the Convention should be rejected, and Lisi v. Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane, which held that similar ticket language failed to give passengers the required notice. The court emphasized the importance of providing passengers with an opportunity to protect themselves by purchasing additional insurance, quoting Lisi that “the quid pro quo for this one-sided advantage is delivery to the passenger of a ticket…which give[s] him notice” of the limited liability. The court also referenced regulations from the Civil Aeronautics Board requiring clear and conspicuous notice of liability limitations. The court concluded that, “An examination of the ticket forms which the respondent used, in the light of that policy, can only lead one to conclude that Mrs. Setter was not sufficiently apprised of the consequences which would result from the fact that her flight happened to carry her outside of the United States.”