Fothergill v Monarch Airlines Ltd

Parliamentary Archives,
HL/PO/JU/18/240

Die Jovis 10° Julii 1980

Upon Report from the Appellate Committee to whom
was referred the Cause Fothergill against Monarch
Airlines Limited, That the Committee had heard
Counsel as well on Tuesday the 20th as on Wednesday
the 21st and Thursday the 22nd days of May last upon
the Petition and Appeal of Monarch Airlines Limited
of Haven House, 48 Haven Green, Haling, London,
W5 2NX praying that the matter of the Order set forth
in the Schedule thereto, namely an Order of Her
Majesty's Court of Appeal of the 31st day of July 1979
might be reviewed before Her Majesty the Queen in
Her Court of Parliament and that the said Order might
be reversed, varied or altered or that the Petitioners
might have such other relief in the premises as to Her
Majesty the Queen in Her Court of Parliament might
seem meet; as also upon the Case of John Wesley
Fothergill lodged in answer to the said Appeal; and due
consideration had this day of what was offered on either
side in this Cause:

It is Ordered and Adjudged, by the Lords Spiritual
and Temporal in the Court of Parliament of Her Majesty
the Queen assembled, That the said Order of Her
Majesty's Court of Appeal of the 31st day of July 1979
complained of in the said Appeal be, and the same is
hereby, Reversed and that it be Declared that, under
Article 26 of the Warsaw Convention of 1929, as
amended by the Hague Protocol of 1955, a complaint
in respect of the partial loss of the contents of the
Respondent's suitcase should have been made within
seven days of the date of receipt of the baggage and that
no sufficient complaint was made: And it is further
Ordered, That the Respondent do pay or cause to be
paid to the said Appellants the Costs incurred by them
in the Courts below and also the Costs incurred by
them in respect of the said Appeal to this House, the
amount of such last-mentioned Costs to be certified by
the Clerk of the Parliaments if not agreed between the
parties: And it is also further Ordered, That the Cause
be, and the same is hereby remitted back to the
Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice to
do therein as shall be just and consistent with this
Judgment.

HOUSE OF LORDS

FOTHERGILL (RESPONDENT)

v.
MONARCH AIRLINES LIMITED (APPELLANTS)

Lord Wilberforce
Lord Diplock
Lord Fraser of Tullybelton
Lord Scarman
Lord Roskill

Lord Wilberforce

my lords,

This appeal involves a small sum of money (£16.50), but is said to raise
two questions of general importance for airlines and travellers by air. It
does, in addition, require discussion of some important issues concerned
with the interpretation of treaties.

The respondent, Mr. Fothergill, in March 1975 arrived at Luton airport
after an international flight on one of the appellant's aircraft. When his
registered baggage, consisting of a suitcase containing personal effects, was
delivered to him…