Duncan v. Northwest Airlines
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
208 F.3d 1112 (2000)
- Written by Angela Patrick, JD
Facts
Julie Duncan (plaintiff) was a flight attendant who worked for Northwest Airlines, Inc. (Northwest) (defendant). Northwest had banned smoking on its domestic flights and most of its international flights. However, Northwest still allowed smoking on its flights across the Pacific to and from Asia, which were the flight routes that Duncan worked. Duncan filed a class-action lawsuit against Northwest on behalf of flight attendants who worked on Northwest’s trans-Pacific flights. Duncan argued that Northwest had exposed the attendants to secondhand smoke in their workplace, which violated state law and had injured the flight attendants. The district court found that Duncan’s state-law personal-injury claims were preempted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act and dismissed the lawsuit. Duncan appealed. While the appeal was pending, Northwest banned smoking on its trans-Pacific flights.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Reinhardt, J.)
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