Cour d'appel de Chambéry, 1er octobre 2020, n° 20/00244

Convention de Varsovie

Article 01

France

Cour d'appel de Chambéry

Inconnu (président), M. Therolle (conseiller), M. Greiner (conseiller), Mme Durand (greffier)

A passenger is heavily injured during a helicopter flight. He demands a preliminary ruling on the constitutionality of the liability cap incorporated into the French national law in a situation where the Warsaw Convention was not directly applicable.

On April 22, 2020, the Attorney General opined to declare the solicited preliminary ruling admissible but groundless, as it did not concern the mere existence of a right of compensation but the assessment of its amount.

It is of settled case law of the French constitutional court that the French constitution grounds a "right to compensation", according to which the laws have to implement effective ways to compensate a damage to a person. A common strategy among lawyers is to contest the application of the limited liability introduced by the international conventions to which France has adhered, the limits being allegedly contrary to the aforementioned right to compensation. Nevertheless, it has to be made clear that if the French constitution does ground a right to compensation, this right cannot by interpreted in a way as to found a principle of full compensation; it is up to the legislator to allow limited liability.

Injury of a passenger