Family Loses Lawsuit After Missing Flight by 48 Hours
Translated & summarized from Bizportal by baba
An Israeli family sued a travel agency and airline after missing a flight by 48 hours due to alleged transit delays in Romania. The court dismissed the case, ruling the family had not purchased transit services and were responsible for timely border crossing.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Family missed flight by 48 hours due to alleged transit delays.
- Court ruled family hadn't purchased transit services from the agency.
- Passengers were responsible for timely border control, court found.
- Agency arranged alternative flight, suggesting lawsuit was bad faith.
- Lawsuit was dismissed, with each party covering their own costs.
A family that traveled to Uman, Ukraine, to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov has lost a lawsuit they filed against a travel agency and an airline after missing their return flight by two days. The David family claimed that delays at the Romanian border, due to improper transit permits for drivers, caused them to miss their flight with Fly One airline, which was booked through the agency Nativim Be'orot. One of the family members, who is disabled and suffers from leg pain, reportedly fainted from the cold and lack of food and water, requiring ambulance evacuation, only to have to rejoin the queue afterward.
However, the travel agency denied the family's claims, stating that the family had not purchased transit services from them for the journey from Uman to the airport in Bacău, Romania. The agency also asserted that the flight departed on time and that the delay was caused by unusual congestion at the Bacău airport, leading local police to hold passengers. The agency argued that the passengers, including the David family, missed their flight due to these circumstances, not due to any fault of the agency or airline.
The court largely sided with the defendants, ruling that the evidence presented by the plaintiffs themselves, specifically notations on their claim documents stating "internal travel - not included," indicated that the transit services alleged to have caused the delay were never purchased from the agency. Therefore, the court concluded, the defendants could not be held responsible for a service they did not provide.
Furthermore, the court determined that even if the family had been delayed at the border, it was the travelers' responsibility to ensure they passed through border control in time for their flight. The court noted that passengers were informed of potential border crossing delays in advance, a risk they accepted by choosing to travel to the region. The court also pointed to the agency's act of arranging a complimentary El Al flight for the family, despite not being legally obligated to do so, as evidence that the lawsuit was filed in bad faith.
Ultimately, the court dismissed the lawsuit entirely. However, considering the agency's prior legal issues, the court decided that each party would bear its own legal costs.