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CS de­feats mo­tion to dis­miss in pas­sen­ger class ac­tion against South­w­est Air­lines

March 30, 2009

The United States Dis­trict Court for the North­ern Dis­trict of Texas (Judge W. Roy­al Furgeson) denied a mo­tion to dis­miss filed by South­w­est Air­lines in a class ac­tion al­leging vi­ol­a­tions of fed­er­al air-safety reg­u­la­tions.

Samuel Klein­er, the lead plaintiff, al­leges that South­w­est Air­lines flew thou­sands of flights in vi­ol­a­tion of fed­er­al air-safety reg­u­la­tions — in­clud­ing one re­quir­ing in­spec­tions of plane fu­sel­ages for cracks that can cause (and have caused) planes to ex­plode in midair.

South­w­est moved to dis­miss on the grounds that the claims were pree­mp­ted by the Air­line De­reg­u­la­tion Act, that the plaintiffs suffered no dam­ages be­cause they ar­rived safely, and that the Con­tract of Car­riage did not, on South­w­est’s in­ter­pret­a­tion of it, af­firm­at­ively prom­ise com­pli­ance with fed­er­al air-safety reg­u­la­tions. Judge Furgeson denied South­w­est’s mo­tion to dis­miss on all grounds.

K.A.D. Ca­mara, Noah Rad­b­il, and De­met­ri­os Anaipakos handled the plaintiffs’ brief­ing on the mo­tion to dis­miss.