SAS strange case law justification

jamesdew

SAS delayed our flight for 10 hours leaving us at Heathrow with a 1 year old and 6 year old with no support at all.

They are arguing that due to sickness and as Heathrow is a "line stations" and they could not have avoided this.

They have quoted "British Court County Court at Horsham's ruling in Case No. B20YM104 from November 16, 2015 (Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. vs. Angelos Antoniou)."

As relevant case law but I cant find any evidence of this case existing or any reference to it anywhere else. 

Has anyone else on her ever heard this before?

Thanks

Sandtree

VS -v- Antonio would mean that Virgin were the ones suing which in itself doesn't sound right. 

You could always email/telephone Horsham CC and ask if the case reference and parties tie up or not. 

eskbanker

jamesdew said:

SAS delayed our flight for 10 hours leaving us at Heathrow with a 1 year old and 6 year old with no support at all.

They are arguing that due to sickness and as Heathrow is a "line stations" and they could not have avoided this.

You might find some of the stuff cited on this thread useful, in particular regarding the CAA and court views about the (in)admissibility of staff absences when trying to deny liability to pay compensation:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6367535/compensation-the-covid-excuse

jamesdew

Sandtree said:

VS -v- Antonio would mean that Virgin were the ones suing which in itself doesn't sound right. 

You could always email/telephone Horsham CC and ask if the case reference and parties tie up or not. 

Ha good point, why would Virgin be taking their customer to court. I have emailed the court to get some details.

I will ask them for a deadlock letter next then go to their ADR scheme I was just surprised to see a case being quoted that I have never heard of before. I almost wonder if they made it up.

Alan_Bowen

It looks as though the customer succeeded in the first instance and the airline was appealing against the decision. However, a County Court judgement creates no precedent at all and may not be followed by a different County Court. If it is a County Court judgement, there may be no official report of the case, just that Virgin probably told all the other airlines operating out of the UK to quote the case to head off claims!

jamesdew

Alan_Bowen said:

It looks as though the customer succeeded in the first instance and the airline was appealing against the decision. However, a County Court judgement creates no precedent at all and may not be followed by a different County Court. If it is a County Court judgement, there may be no official report of the case, just that Virgin probably told all the other airlines operating out of the UK to quote the case to head off claims!

It's apparently from 2015 though and this is coming from Scandinavian Airlines not Virgin. I didn't think county court rulings were relevant in case law. SAS really dont want to pay us this compensation.

Sandtree

Alan_Bowen said:

It looks as though the customer succeeded in the first instance and the airline was appealing against the decision. However, a County Court judgement creates no precedent at all and may not be followed by a different County Court. If it is a County Court judgement, there may be no official report of the case, just that Virgin probably told all the other airlines operating out of the UK to quote the case to head off claims!

Most County Court Judgements are handed down orally and therefore only the basic details are recorded but some do come in the form of a written judgement. 

As far as I am aware the names of the parties aren't reversed if the defendant is the appellant, if you look at https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/yousaf-claimant-respondent-v-davis-defendant-appellant/ for example its clear that Yousaf is listed first as the original claimant but its Davis that is the appellant in the appeal.

amritlohia

jamesdew said:

It's apparently from 2015 though and this is coming from Scandinavian Airlines not Virgin. I didn't think county court rulings were relevant in case law. SAS really dont want to pay us this compensation.

Indeed, County Court judgments don't create any legal precedent. In any event, the position has now been settled by Lipton v BA City Flyer Ltd [2021] EWCA Civ 454, where the Court of Appeal held that staff illness is not an extraordinary circumstance - as was also pointed out in the thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6367535/compensation-the-covid-excuse, referred to above.