In re Air Crash at Taipei, Taiwan, on October 31, 2000

Singapore Airlines, Inc. (Singapore Air) and United Airlines, Inc. (United) (defendants) were members of an airline network known as the Star Alliance. Star Alliance members worked together to provide a coordinated customer-service experience for flights involving multiple airlines in the network. The Star Alliance agreement specifically stated that the members were not general partners and remained legally separate entities. Helen Broadfoot and Jay Spack (plaintiffs) were passengers on a Star Alliance flight operated by Singapore Air that was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles. In Taipei, the aircraft crashed during takeoff, killing some passengers and injuring others. Although the Warsaw Convention allowed Broadfoot and Spack to bring claims for their crash injuries, because they had purchased their tickets outside the United States and their ultimate trip destination was Australia, a United States court had jurisdiction to hear their claims only if the carrier for their flight was domiciled or headquartered in the United States. Singapore Air was neither domiciled nor headquartered in the United States. Arguing that any Star Alliance member could be considered the carrier for a Star Alliance flight, Broadfoot and Spack filed Warsaw Convention claims in a United States federal court against United, which was domiciled in the United States. United moved to dismiss the claims for lack of jurisdiction, arguing that it was not the carrier of the crashed flight.