Lawsuit: Delta Flight Attendant Struck Passenger “Unexpectedly” And “Multiple Times” With Beverage Cart, Causing “Permanent” Injury

A lawsuit claims that a Delta Air Lines flight attendant struck a passenger multiple times with a beverage cart on a transatlantic flight. Is there any merit to this lawsuit or is it simply a bald-faced money grab?

Lawsuit Alleges Delta Flight Attendant Struck Passengers With Beverage Cart Multiple Times

The lawsuit, filed on August 7, 2024 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, recounts an event that allegedly took place on June 21, 2022 on a transatlantic flight. Per the complaint:

• The incident occurred on Delta flight 263 from Paris (CDG) to New York (JFK)
• During the flight, the plaintiff, Gail Hamilton, was “unexpectedly struck…multiple times about the body” by a “loaded” beverage cart
• Hamilton claims the impact caused her to “sustain severe and permanent injuries” to her right shoulder and surrounding areas
• The unnamed flight attendant is referred to as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit, a common way to refer to defendants whose identity is not known
• Hamilton does not declare the impact was deliberate but does label it as negligence and claims she did not contribute to the injury
• She is seeking damages “in a sum which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower courts which would otherwise have jurisdiction”

The complaint is light on details. Among my questions:

• How did it happen multiple times?
• How is such an impact possible even if you are sitting in an aisle seat, unless your shoulders and/or other parts of your body are sticking out into the aisle?
• Did the flight attendant apologize?
• How were the injuries permanent?

Delta Responds: Denies All Claims

In a fairly boilerplate response, Delta denied any negligence on its part and asked that the case be dismissed.

The injuries and damages allegedly sustained by the Plaintiff were caused solely by the Plaintiff’s own culpable and negligent conduct and were not caused nor contributed to by reason or other omission or act on the part of Delta.

This was one of many affirmative defenses, which are typically asserted just in case rather than as a definite response to the specific allegations against Delta. Delta is asking that the case be dismissed.

You can read Delta’s answer here.

CONCLUSION

In an incident that occurred more than two years ago, a woman alleges a Delta flight attendant negligently struck her multiple times with a beverage cart. While I think most of us who fly regularly have been struck by a beverage cart at some point, at least in my case it has been because my feet or legs were sticking out into the aisle. I’m not saying that Hamilton’s case has no merit if she can show negligence on the part of the flight attendant (such as trying to get a cart down the aisle and bumping her multiple times instead of stopping to figure out what the obstruction was), but proving anything from a flight two years ago seems quite difficult at this point.

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