LaBeau v. MN Airlines, LLC

Background

Wayne Thomas LaBeau and Ma Florentina Busso LaBeau booked a vacation package to Los Cabos, Mexico, that included airfare and lodging. Their scheduled return flight to Minnesota was cancelled when the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport closed for about eight hours because of a snowstorm. The plaintiffs bought tickets on another airline to Tijuana, crossed the Mexico-United States border on foot, stayed with a family member in California, and later flew to Minnesota.

MN Airlines, doing business as Sun Country Airlines, refunded the plaintiffs’ full round-trip airfare and later sent them $462.80 after receiving receipts for additional expenses. The plaintiffs nevertheless pursued three claims: a claim under Article 19 of the Montreal Convention, a breach-of-contract claim based on an employee’s alleged promise to reimburse their expenses, and a negligence claim based on the airline’s alleged failure to provide or arrange transportation home.

Montreal Convention claim

The court held that Article 19 of the Montreal Convention applies to damage caused by a delay in international air travel, not to an airline’s total nonperformance of its transportation obligation. The undisputed facts showed that Sun Country cancelled the plaintiffs’ return flight and did not rebook them on another flight that caused a delay. The plaintiffs independently arranged alternative transportation and did not speak with a Sun Country employee until after returning to Minnesota. The court therefore concluded that the claim involved nonperformance rather than delay and granted summary judgment to Sun Country on Count I.

Breach-of-contract claim

The parties agreed that Sun Country’s Contract of Carriage governed the trip. The contract allowed Sun Country to cancel reservations because of weather or other conditions beyond its control and required a refund of the unused airfare. It also stated that employees lacked authority to alter or waive the contract unless authorized by a corporate officer.

The plaintiffs argued that a reservation specialist had apparent authority to modify the contract by promising full reimbursement for their additional transportation expenses. Apparent authority is authority that a principal creates by holding an agent out as authorized or knowingly allowing the agent to act that way. The court found no evidence that Sun Country took affirmative action indicating that the specialist had such authority, or that Sun Country knew of and approved a regular practice of employees exercising that authority. Because the plaintiffs did not identify a genuine dispute of material fact on this issue, the court granted summary judgment to Sun Country on Count II.

Negligence claim

The plaintiffs alleged that Sun Country negligently failed to prevent delays, provide a rescue flight, or ensure that they could return home. The Airline Deregulation Act preempts state-law claims that relate to an airline’s prices, routes, or services and impose general standards governing airline practices rather than enforce a private contractual bargain.

The plaintiffs did not dispute that their negligence claim was preempted. The court agreed because the claim concerned Sun Country’s routes and services and sought to impose liability for failing to provide particular services. The court therefore granted summary judgment to Sun Country on Count III.

Disposition

The court granted MN Airlines, LLC’s motion for summary judgment, Docket 24, on all three counts and directed that judgment be entered. Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright signed the order.