DVT victims set to resume payout claim against BA - 14/04/04
FINANCIAL TIMES

The House of Lords is poised to hear a multi-million pound compensation claim from victims of deep vein thrombosis after British Airways agreed to waive potential legal costs in an extraordinary effort to allow the case against it to proceed.

The action could force airlines to compensate hundreds of passengers who claim their lives have been destroyed or severely impaired after contracting potentially fatal blood clots, known as economy class syndrome, on long flights.

Lawyers acting for DVT sufferers against a number of international airlines had formally discontinued all but one of the cases because the claimants could not afford to cover potential legal costs.

However, in a highly unusual move, BA agreed last week to waive the legal costs it would be due if the claimants were to lose their case, allowing it to proceed.

BA’s legal costs could top £500,000, while compensation estimates range from about £500,000 for each death to up to £100,000 for surviving DVT suffers. DVT is a blood clot that develops when movement is restricted, and often starts in the leg. It can prove fatal if it reaches the lungs or brain.

Some estimate that up to 9,000 British airline travellers develop DVT each year, with the condition claiming the lives of more than 500.

Relatives of DVT victims pushing for a Lords hearing said they were “taken aback” by BA’s decision.

Collins Solicitors, the Watford-based firm representing eight claimants against BA, yesterday sought permission from the Lords to withdraw their discontinuance notice.

Des Collins, the passengers’ solicitor, said he believed the law lords were keen to hear the case as US and Australian supreme courts had differed from an earlier DVT ruling from the UK ’s Court of Appeal. He said: “Normally you cannot withdraw a discontinuance notice but because BA have consented it should go like clockwork. BA’s decision to waive costs was absolutely the last thing I saw coming.”

The Claimants say cramped seating, and failure by the airlines to warn about its consequences, has caused them to suffer from blood clots. The law lords will consider whether the clots can be deemed an “accident”, which must be the case for passengers to sue an airline under the 1929 Warsaw Convention. A hearing is expected in late summer.

So far UK judges have ruled that DVT resulted from passengers’ reactions to “normal and unremarkable flights” and so could not be considered an accident.

But in February, the US Supreme Court held that the UK Court of Appeal’s decision was not binding on it and made reference to the fact the case had not yet been dealt with by the UK ’s highest court.

Some lawyers suggested that BA’s move could be seen as “damage limitation”. However, BA expressed confidence the original ruling would be upheld. It said: “BA do not wish to have the charge levied against us of having deep pockets to deny litigants’ access to justice.”