Spit On, Slapped & Zip Tied: Southwest Passenger Sues, Saying Open Seating Made The Drunk Attack Inevitable

A clearly intoxicated passenger grabbed another woman’s hair, slapped and spat at her, and shouted body-shaming insults on a Southwest Airlines flight from New York LaGuardia to Kansas City back on June 16. The woman was restrained with zip-ties, and she was ultimately removed from the aircraft back into the terminal on a gurney.

The perpetrator was identified as Leanna Perry, a Brooklyn-based illustrator and artist who has worked with Maybelline, Adidas, and Steve Madden. She was charged with misdemeanor obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, three counts of attempted assault, and three counts of harassment and pled not guilty (she is due back in Queens Criminal Court on September 3.

Now the victim is suing her and Southwest, arguing the airline’s open seating policy is negligent and caused the attack.

Shocking Viral Video: Passenger Spits & Pulls Hair on Flight to KCI
byu/SansLucidity inkansascity

Southwest Freakout getting rolled out
byu/icekraze inPublicFreakout

Now, Southwest may have been negligent in boarding an intoxicated passenger. We see airlines staffing their gates with fewer agents than they used to. They no longer have time to notice. But it’s pretty novel to argue that Southwest’s open-seating policy was a foreseeable conflict driver. And it’s ironic for Southwest to face this right as the 54 year old airline is on the precipice of abandoning open seating.

The victim claims severe emotional distress, public humiliation, reputational harm (!), continuing psychological injury, and physical injuries. She pleads three causes of action against Southwest:

  • Negligence (failure to deny boarding). Failed to deny boarding to a visibly impaired/intoxicated passenger, failed to act on warning signs, and failed to protect her from foreseeable harm.

  • Negligence / vicarious liability. Southwest is vicariously liable for its employees’ acts and omissions (flight attendants and ground staff) in allowing the situation to escalate and not mitigating the risk once the incident began.

  • Open seating. Southwest departs from industry standards in order to generate revenue (paid early boarding, though Southwest believes this is harming their revenue which is why they’re moving to paid seat assignments!), reduced turn times (but again they’re abandoning this, acted against turn times with paid checked bags, and are working to mitigate with IT investments) and self-selection of seats necessarily fosters passenger conflict.

The passenger needs to prove visible intoxication or disqualifying behavior prior to boarding. But no one was likely paying attention to the woman before she melted down. This is a fact-based inquiry, and could go to discovery.

The open seating argument, though, seems like it will be pre-empted by the Airline Deregulation Act which prevents state laws (including state tort claims) from regulating airline prices, routes, or service. Boarding and seating procedures are clearly elements of the airline’s service.

I think the fact that people regularly save seats with donut bags and deter passengers from taking open seats by crumpling up tissues or acting creepy – and no conflcit ensues – suggests that this isn’t an unsafe boarding strategy. And it hasn’t been unsafe over the course of the airline’s history!

Woman saving an entire row of plane seats behind her with donut bags.
byu/Hog_Fan inmildlyinfuriating

@mikewdavis

How to keep seats open next to you on a flight 😂

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Aside from the defects in the argument that open seating is enriching the airline, which conflicts with the airline’s plan to abandon open seating to make more money, this just doesn’t seem likely to survive dismissal.

And ultimately, surely the intentional assault by a passenger is the cause of harm. Southwest is less than 50% at fault! Unless the victim can show that this assault was specifically foreseeable by the airline (even though it’s never been argued successfully against the airline in its history, so how would they forsee it now?) it seems like a stretch. Moreover, the crew responded quickly with zip ties! They were prepared! Punitive damanges just aren’t going to be on the table here.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Should be permanent No Fly List with a few months in prison. But a DA will likely drop all charges after a sob “I’m a minority and a victim” story or a Judge will just give some probation. Rinse and repeat. Gary won’t run out of vulgar, feral animal behavior like on planes threads to post.

  2. @George Romey — That really is your go-to… this myth there’s rampant crime (in ‘blue’ cities, naturally) and that no one is ever convicted… yet, in reality, crimes can and do happen anywhere, ‘red’ places, too, and plenty of people are convicted, pay fines, and serve time… but, anyway. You do you, bud. Keep livin’ the dream!

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