| Olympic Airways v. Husain | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued November 12, 2003 Decided February 24, 2004 | |
| Full case name | Olympic Airways, Petitioner v. Rubina Husain, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Abid M. Hanson, Deceased, et al. |
| Citations | 540 U.S. 644 (more) 124 S. Ct. 1221; 157 L. Ed. 2d 1146; 2004 U.S. LEXIS 1620; 72 U.S.L.W. 4187; 4 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 709; 17 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 139 |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Thomas, joined by Rehnquist, Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg |
| Dissent | Scalia, joined by O'Connor (Parts I and II) |
| Breyer took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
| Laws applied | |
| Warsaw Convention | |
Olympic Airways v. Husain, 540 U.S. 644 (2004), was a United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) case related to Olympic Airways Flight 417. The case arose from the death on January 4, 1998 of Dr. Abid Hanson,[1] a passenger on Olympic Airways Flight 417 from Cairo, Egypt, via Athens, Greece, to New York City in the United States. Hanson died following exposure to secondhand smoke.[2]
Dr. Hanson, who had a "history of recurrent anaphylactic reactions" and sensitivity to secondhand smoke, had requested a non-smoking seat. When the family boarded the Boeing 747 aircraft[3] in Athens, the family found that the assigned seats were three rows ahead of the economy-class smoking area; there was no partition between the smoking and non-smoking sections. The family repeatedly requested a seat farther away from the smoking section but the flight attendant, Maria Leptourgou, would not move the passenger to any of the eleven other unoccupied seats on the aircraft. Hanson felt a reaction to the smoke and died several hours later in-flight, despite a doctor's aid.[3]
- ^ Lithwick, Dahlia. "The Accidental Tourist." Slate. Wednesday November 12, 2003. Retrieved on July 4, 2009.
- ^ Supreme Court brief
- ^ a b Husain v. Olympic Airways Archived March 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine (), 316 F.3d 829 (9th Cir. 2002),