We recently heard from parents whose young child was injured in the gate waiting area at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia.

The parents, concerned about their child’s injury, contacted the Herndon law firm Abrams Landau to find out if they had a viable injury lawsuit against either the airlines, the airport, or the airport maintenance company. We advised the parents of the following:

In general, an injured party must prove each and every one of the following in order to recover damages for an injury:

[1] The Liability (= negligence) of the defendant airport &/or airlines;
[2] No Contributory Negligence or Assumption of Risk on the part of the injured person; and
[3] Damages that are reasonable and related to the accident, in other words

That the injured person has sustained actual losses that:
[a] could have been mitigated;
[b] are reasonable in duration and amount;
[c] are directly related to this accident.

The equation, simply put, is: LIABILITY + NO DEFENSES + DAMAGES = RECOVERY

The facts of this case were as follows:

• The child was injured while climbing/crawling, unattended, on the departing passenger chairs located at the airline’s gate of departure.

• Photographs supplied by the family indicated no defects in the chair which would have caused the child to fall.  Furthermore, the chair did not collapse, tip over, etc.

Essentially, the child was allowed to misuse the chairs by climbing and walking across them, rather than sitting in them, and this — not negligence on the part of the airport or airline — was the cause of the injury.

Unless there was a defect in the chair which caused the child’s injury AND the defect was known to the airline or airport maintenance department in advance of the child’s injury and nothing was done to repair the defect, there is not a viable claim for the injury.

For these reasons, we were unable to represent the parents and injured child, but wished them well in the future.

Free Consultation from Abrams Landau

If you or someone you know has been injured and there are questions as to what laws apply, email or call Abrams Landau, Ltd. at once (703-796-9555).  We will review the facts of your case to determine the viability of a claim.  If we feel you don’t have a claim, as in the example above, you will, of course, owe us nothing for our time and efforts.