British Airways colluded with CEDR to Frustrate Claim. Any Idea to Assist?

[A1A]

Four family members were travelling together to the USA with two nights stopover in London. They arrived at the Check-in-Desk of Heathrow Terminal 5 in sufficient time before the Check-in was closed to Houston. They were delayed unnecessarily by the Check-in-Desk Agent who spent a huge amount of time to be satisfied that the passengers documentations and PCR Tests were genuine. As a direct result of the delay after the female agent was satisfied of their documentations and as she was about to issue the boarding tickets she said that the time was already 8:25 hours so they cannot meet the flight anymore that was due to depart at 9:25 hours. They pleaded that she should give them the boarding tickets but she refused. She told them their only option was for them to purchase a ticket for the route to the USA alone and to seek refunds from BA Customer Relations. On that basis they complied.

However when they requested refund from BA Customer Relations about ten days later their requests were refused on grounds they were late for the flight. All their explanations were ignored by BA. So they requested for next escalation point. BA signposted them to the CEDR. They then escalated the matter to the CEDR and provided evidence including:

1. Car Park Tickets to demonstrate time of their arrival at Heathrow Terminal 5.

2. Provided pictorial evidence of the name badges of the two Duty Managers who allowed them to take pictures of their name badges to assist them for the refunds.

3. They also provided written communications to BA in which they requested under the Subject Access Regulations for the video clip of the CCTV to demonstrate that they were at the Check-in-Desk in sufficient time but that the Check-in-Desk Agent was just being unfair to them on grounds which may not be unconnected that they were unable to upload their documents via the Verifly Apps. BA responded that they would not need the CCTV to decide the matter but failed to respond to the SAR until after 30 days that heathrow Limited was the data controller. When they requested for the SAR from Heathrow Limited, they received a response that the CCTV was not longer available as they requested more than 30 days after the event.

4. They provided a recorded audio voice of the Check-in-Desk Agent that could be heard that she received them and that the process of the PCR tests and other aspect took time. Thus an evidence to demonstrate on the balance of probabilities that they were at the Check-in-Desk before the the Check-in was closed.

CEDR Adjudicator decided that they provided no evidence whatsoever to demonstrate that they were at the Check-in-Desk one hour before the flight scheduled departure. In fact the Adjudicator found that they arrived at the Check-in-Desk 4 minutes before the scheduled departure at 09:25 hours. The passengers brought those evidence to the attention of CEDR after the final decision and they received a response that the Car Park Ticket does not translate to time they arrived at the Check-in-Desk and no knowledge as to what time the audio was recorded. The passengers wrote back to inform CEDR that the issue was the recorded statement of the Check-in-Desk Agent but the CEDR refused to listen to the recorded audio voice on grounds that the decision of the Adjudicator cannot be reversed.

The challenge for the passengers are that they are neither based in the UK nor in Europe to issue a County Court Claim. Is there any way for the passengers to get justice as the CEDR appeared to have colluded with British Airways according to the passengers by CEDR deliberate refusal to listen to the contemporaneous audio record of the Check-in-Desk agent statement that sufficiently demonstrate on a balance of probabilities that they were at the Check-in-Desk in sufficient time before the Check-in was closed?

[A1A]

Any idea on how someone not based in the UK and not also based in Europe could issue proceedings against British Airways within the Small Claims Court?

[A1A]

Bump

[A1A]

des8 rob Any suggestion?

[des8]

I'm guessing you will need to file and serve your claim with form N150

[A1A]

Thanks. But will the court correspond to the prospective Claimant outside the UK? Do you know of any similar case to consider?

[des8]

i do not know of similar cases, and don't see why the court might not respond to the form (https://www.gov.uk/government/public...e-jurisdiction)

[A1A]

The link you provided is not clear about a Claimant who is not in the UK seeking to issue a court proceedings for a Defendant in the UK. It seems to create the impression that the Claimant is based in the UK.

[des8]

Sorry about that, but I'm pretty sure that a person domiciled outside the UK can file a claim in UK courts.
If they can't one would have to question the reason for CPR 25.13 which allows for security costs order to be made against a claimant resident out of the jurisdiction

[efpom]

If one issues proceedings in England & Wales, one must have an address for service. However, it may be possible to issue proceedings in one's home jurisdiction and enforce any judgment from the home court in the UK (or elsewhere.)

It would seem that the home court here is in the USA. If that is right, bear in mind that it is not possible to enforce a US judgment in England directly; you must first obtain an English judgment, which requires an address for service in the English jurisdiction, which brings us back to the beginning.

Where is the home court?

[A1A]

Thank you both. They would like to issue the Court Proceedings in England and they don't wish to issue the Court Proceedings in the USA also given they went through the CEDR already in England. They would have been fine if the Court operates like the CEDR where everything is contactless and via the Internet.

Their challenge is to be able to secure address for litigation purposes in England with the hope the matter could be determined on the papers or remotely via Telephone or Zoom.

[R0b]

Your options are limited I'm afraid.

Whilst there is no requirement to be a UK resident to issue legal proceedings, the English courts have to be the correct jurisdiction to hear the claim. If BA challenged the jurisdiction arguing that the claim should start elsewhere, you would need to argue why the court should hold jurisdiction over your case. There are legal criteria to this which I'm not going into as it can get a bit complex but you have to bear that in mind.

Once proceedings have started, Civil Procedure Rule 6.23 applies (link here). To summarise, you need to give a UK address for service of court documents and that can be done through a nominated agent or employ the services of a solicitor. Given the circumstances, the family members may want to use a law firm on a no win no fee basis and the caveat is they would have to give up 25% of their compensation. Bott and Co. are the most well known for flight compensation claims so they are probably the go to experts to verify whether there is a valid claim or not.

[A1A]

rob Thank you.

Can you assist looking at the maiden message the likely legal cause of action and how to present a focused Particulars of Claim that would not be viewed as not properly particularised or prolix or too winding?

Given the limitation of the small claims court do you think they have any grounds for compensation on top of the flight ticket that they were compelled to purchase?

[efpom]

the ticket could have been a single contract of carriage or two separate contracts of carriage i.e. did the 2 day stopover in London result in two separate contracts?

It is more likely than not that each pax had his/her own individual contract of carriage. But it may be that the arrangement was some form of inclusive arrangement, where the London accommodation and the air transport formed one contract - a package as defined by the package travel regulations

Which was it?.

The locus of the dispute is that the pax say they presented themselves on time at check in and the airline says they did not.
See 6(e) below.

What were the deadlines?

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...ns-of-carriage

[efpom]

BA contract of carriage

6c) You must check in by the check-in deadline
If you do not complete the check-in process by the check-in deadline, we may decide to cancel your reservation and not carry you. By completing the check-in process we mean that you have received your boarding pass for your flight.

I think that the contractual duty of the pax is to be face to face with the boarding pass issuer before the “check in deadline” and to hand over all the necessary travel documentation to the boarding pass issuer – before here, being at the limit, 1 second before the check-in desk closes.

The pax is not, thereafter, a participant in the check in process, which is the function of the airline’s check in person.

In putting the onus under 6c) on the pax in the 1^st sentence of 6c), I think a respectable argument can be made that clause 6c) is an unfair term of the contract.