He Slipped On An Ice Cube During a Southwest Flight From New York – He’s Now Blaming the Flight Attendants
- A man slipped on a rogue ice cube during a Southwest Airlines flight to St. Louis, leaving him in severe pain. A new $200,000 lawsuit accuses a flight attendant of negligence.
When a passenger slipped on a stray ice cube that had fallen onto the carpet of a Southwest Airlines plane flying from LaGuardia to St. Louis last month, it seemed like nothing more than a simple accident. Now, the man is suing Southwest Airlines for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The reasoning behind the man’s lawsuit is that he wouldn’t have slipped and hurt his back if it hadn’t been for the negligence of a flight attendant onboard a flight – an allegation that could net the passenger a huge legal settlement.
The incident occurred on May 20 as a flight attendant was collecting trash from passengers aboard Southwest flight WN-4379. As she neared the end of her trash collection round, the flight attendant fumbled with a used cup, spilling the contents not only on a passenger but also on the floor.
The liquid and several ice cubes from the dropped cup fell on the floor, but according to Donnell Sims, the flight attendant ignored the mess on the carpet and carried on collecting trash from other passengers.
A short time later, Sims got up from his seat to use the restroom and promptly slipped on one of the ice cubes. Sims flew through the air before hitting the floor hard, injuring his neck and back.
Flight attendants offered to help Sims, giving him some Tylenol for the pain and calling EMS to meet the aircraft on arrival. Sims was met by paramedics on arrival and had to be transported through the airport in a wheelchair.
Several days later, Sims says in a recently filed lawsuit in a Missouri district court that he had to go to the Emergency Room at St Marys Hospital in St Louis because he was in such “extreme pain.”
Many personal injury lawsuits made against airlines rely on an internationally recognized law known as the Montreal Convention, which makes carriers responsible for injuries sustained by customers during the course of a flight.
However, the Montreal Convention only applies to international flights, so for domestic cases, plaintiffs must rely on local rules, and in this case, Sims is suing Southwest for negligence and dereliction of duty.
Sims argues that he should be awarded monetary damages of $100,000 for each count, meaning that Southwest could be made to pay out a total of $200,000.
Of course, the vast majority of these legal claims are settled out of court in secret agreements in which it’s almost impossible to find out how much compensation plaintiffs are awarded.
This is the way the system works. He isn’t suing “flight attendants,” he’s suing the airline, because of all of the parties involved in this debacle, the airline can easily insure for this accident while nobody else can. In the USA where medical care isn’t free, the cost has to be assessed to somebody, because accidents do happen and society doesn’t want people to forego or be bankrupted by medical expenses. This isn’t a moral bargain, just a financial one.
If the man was significantly injured and remains injured to this day, then he should be compensated as it was the fault of an airline employee that he slipped. On the other hand, if he is really just fine, then he should not be compensated. Especially if his visit to the emergency room and treatment were paid for by insurance. My guess is that SW is smart enough that they will hire an investigator to follow him and examine his social internet record etc to determine if he is faking. They simply can’t just pay these claims without checking.
Of course. This is why we have courts where lawyers argue the positions of both sides to the Jury and let them decide. None of us are in a position to know who is right and who is wrong from this limited vantage point.
Kaching ! An ‘unexpected’ payday ! Followed by a myriad of copy cat lawsuits now for the latest ‘one cube’ trend. We still have the hot beverage lawsuits and nowhere else in the world do they like to sue as in the United States !
Seriously, though, I bet he didn’t have medical insurance and if WN is balking at covering his medical bills so far, then I wish him well. Another ‘perk’ about the United States is the lack of universal health care !
What is he 3. Slipped on an ice cube funny
I am disabled, mental disability, there was a wheelchair written on my ticket and I was told there were no wheelchairs asked if I could walk told me to go have a seat The employees were so rude I have all the documentation and I am unable to find an attorney this happened in Atlanta Georgia I had to sit on the floor for a 2-hour layover if anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it Southwest airlines needs to take care of their passengers and stop throwing us to the side this happened two years ago still unable to get answers. Help