Woman Sues Airline For Humiliation Over Her Weight

(The=A0Voice=A0of=A0Reason) wrote:

snip

Yes seats are generally too small, but most
people, even most overweight people, can fit
into a single seat. It crosses the line when
someone's body infringes on someone else's
personal space due to their obesity.

Obesity isn't the only issue here, though. (I'd be in no position to
cast that particular stone, though I don't generally intrude into a
second time zone.) In July I found myself in a Southwest aisle seat
from Oakland to Baltimore, next to a center-seat passenger who was /big/
-- not fat, which might possibly be viewed as a self-inflicted problem;
just fullback-big, six foot eight or so, and proportionally wide. I
spent a very uncomfortable five hours leaning into the aisle at about a
ten degree angle.

Airline seats are designed to accommodate, what, 95% of the population?
The consequence is that 5% of potential passengers will experience
significant problems, and will create significant problems for their
(often involuntary) seatmates.

I don't have a solution that's fair to both passengers and the airlines.
Bummer of a Universe, eh?

Alan Follett

"Dennis" wrote in message
...
Woman Sues Airline For Humiliation Over Her Weight

I haven't read all the posts on this thread, but enough to get the gist of
the arguments. The problem is really our litigation-happy society and the
trial lawyers who start most of this trouble. While this woman may be a fat
pig, the real pigs are the attorneys who pursue this sort of stupid suit. A
reasonable society would just make her buy two seats. Or, if she were
REALLY gross, 3 seats. Jesus, what happened to common sense????
What if she weighed 500 pounds and had to be hoisted aboard with a crane??
Who would be expected to pay for that??

In addition, what's all this cross-posting??? Read the FAQs of any NG...
You gotta decide what is the best forum for your subject..

Bruce

Scott wrote:
On Wed, 1 Sep 2004 18:52:03 -0700, "Matt"
wrote:


"anonymous" wrote in message
. com...

Matt wrote:


"PeterL" wrote in message
...


I, literally, cannot imagine anything that a gate agent might say or do
which would rise to the level of actionable intentional infliction.


I can, however, easily imagine a jury ruling for the plaintiff.




Or a judge finding that ADA regulations require airlines to add special
oversized seats for overweight or wheelchair-bound people.

Matt

ADA specifically exempts air carriers.

For now maybe. Meeting ADA requirements has always been a moving target.
It wouldn't surprise me if in 10 or 15 years, ADA was amended to include
airlines.

Matt



There is already a law for airlines called the Air Carrier Access Act.
http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/publi...s/disabled.htm

I'm not sure how it can be applied to this topic, but you're welcome
to look for loopholes.


That's a brief summary of 14 CFR Part 382.

http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/w...cfr382_02.html

If legalese is your cup of tea, you're welcomed to comb it for loopholes.

(The summary you posted a link to has more loopholes than things that
fall within its nets - for example it says nothing about accessibility
of airplane toilets, which is one of the biggest issues in the ADA).