One case down, one to go for Air NZ

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Air New Zealand is playing down a failed lawsuit by an American passenger who collapsed in Auckland with life-threatening blood clots, but is waiting for another case to unfold in Australia.

A United States federal appeal court in San Francisco has dismissed the claim by Adriene Rodriguez that the airline was liable for damages from a deep-vein thrombosis she suffered on a flight from Los Angeles to Auckland in 2000.

But Australian lawyers are expected to quote the higher authority of the US Supreme Court when seeking leave this week to appeal to their country's High Court over a similar case, against Qantas and British Airways by a Sydney businessman who suffered thrombosis.

Ms Rodriguez, whose ultimate destination was her new home of Australia, collapsed after leaving an aircraft at Auckland airport for a stopover from a 12-hour flight which she said she mainly slept through without eating or rising from her seat.

She was unable to speak or control her right arm on regaining consciousness, although she recovered enough during five days in Auckland Hospital to fly on to Melbourne.

Doctors found she had suffered a thrombosis during the flight from Los Angeles, from which a blood clot broke into several smaller clots which lodged in her lung.

But a unanimous decision by three judges in the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that the thrombosis was an internal bodily reaction to normal aircraft operations, and not an accident opening the airline to damages under the international Warsaw Convention.

Ms Rodriguez accused Air NZ of failing to warn her of the risk of thrombosis, but the judges said an in-flight magazine she had read recommended that passengers drink water, walk and exercise - "all actions which allegedly help prevent the development of DVT".

Although American press commentators said the decision was a blow for scores of similar suits against airlines by other US thrombosis victims, which have been referred to a single judge, Air NZ denies it set a precedent.

"It was not a test case - there have been a number of similar cases involving the same issue," spokeswoman Rosie Paul told the Herald yesterday. "The key thing is that there has been no judgment entered against airlines around the world."

Both she and Roger Chambers, a Wellington lawyer taking action against Air NZ and six other airlines for almost 30 New Zealand families allegedly affected by deep-vein thrombosis, indicated they were more interested in pending Australian and British cases.

Australian lawyers will seek leave on Friday from their country's High Court to challenge a decision by Victorian Court of Appeal judges which reversed a lower court's finding in favour of a Sydney thrombosis sufferer.

Britain's House of Lords has already granted leave for 55 thrombosis victims and their families to appeal against a decision in favour of more than 25 airlines, including Air NZ, although a hearing date has yet to be set.


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