Airlines not liable for Australian DVT claims

Holidaymakers who suffer from blood clots that may be related to flying on long haul flights may not be able to receive compensation from airlines, following an Australian appeal court ruling today.

The Australian appeal ruling concurs with a similar UK appeal court ruling last year that airlines are not liable for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) claims under the Warsaw Convention governing international flights.

Sean Gates, senior partner of London law firm Gates and Partners representing some of the airlines, said: "This decision is of particular importance because of the hundreds of cases pending in Australia, necessarily a jurisdiction where long haul travel is commonplace, and because of the quality of the decision which addresses all the issues argued extensively before the court."

The Court of Appeal of Victoria decided this week in a two to one majority verdict that airlines were not liable under international law to compensate Brian Povey for his deep vein thrombosis which he claimed occurred on an international flight.

Povey alleged that his DVT was caused by an 'accident' as defined under Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention on international flights.

Povey had taken a Qantas flight from London to Bangkok and then a British Airways flight from Bangkok to Sydney via Kuala Lumpur on February 15/16, 2000. Leading cases on the Convention, define an accident as being "sudden" or "unexpected" .

Povey said that his DVT was caused "during the course of or following the flights." In particular, he was immobilised in a "confined and restricted environment" for a long period of time.

He said that the condition and the resulting injuries were "caused by an accident which took place on board the aircraft upon which the flights were undertaken".

Defendant airlines Qantas and British Airways argued that Povey had no cause of action and, therefore, no case because his DVT was not caused by an "accident" as defined in the Warsaw Convention.