Introduction
In January 2021 the Jerusalem Magistrates Court accepted a claim filed against the Israeli Aviation Authority (IAA) by a passenger who had been injured while colliding with another person at Ben-Gurion International Airport (TLV), which the IAA operated.(1)
The court ruled that the presence of ground stewards in the terminal – even if considered to be a high standard – could have prevented the collision between the plaintiff and the other person.
Facts
The plaintiff and her spouse arrived at TLV late at night for their flight; according to them, the airport was unusually busy. While standing in front of the flight schedule board, an unknown person hit the plaintiff from behind and caused her to fall to the ground. After a few minutes and with the help of passers-by, she got up and caught her flight.
Introduction
In August 2020 the Central District Court dismissed several requests for the certification of various class actions which had been filed against different airlines on the basis that statutory damages under the Israeli Aviation Services Law (ASL) (Compensation and Assistance for Flight Cancellation or Change of Conditions) 2012(1) cannot be claimed in class actions.
In all of the class action requests, similar responses were raised by the airlines. The main argument was that according to the Class Action Law 2016, the court cannot award compensation where proof of damage is not required.
Preliminary motions
In some of the cases, the airlines filed a preliminary motion to dismiss the certification motion prior to filing a response to the merits. In some cases, this preliminary argument was raised within the response.