Cour d'appel de Paris, 4 décembre 2018, n°17/18805

Convention de Varsovie
Convention de Montréal

Article 22
29

France

Cour d'appel de Paris

M. Guiguesson (président)M. Byk (conseiller)
M. Senel (conseiller)
Mme Bajazet (greffier)

During a domestic flight, a plane crashed in Carpentras. The pilot died, his wife and their daughters were injured. The pilot's insurance company compensated the occupants for the bodily harm suffered and the damage resulting from the death of the pilot.
The pilot's insurance company files a claim against the civil liability insurer of the pilot's club to obtain the refund of the compensation paid.

Considering that the liability of the passenger air carrier is governed solely by the provisions of the Warsaw Convention of October 12, 1929, to which the former article L.322-3 of the French Civil Aviation Code refers, regardless of whether it is '' acts of free transport carried out by a non-professional;
Considering that in application of the rule of public order fixed by article 29 of the said convention, 'the action for liability must be brought, on pain of forfeiture, within two years from the arrival at destination or the day on which the aircraft should have arrived, or the stoppage of transport ';
Considering, in this case, that it was on arrival of the flight on July 14, 2010, that the incident occurred, so that the limitation period having been acquired on July 14, 2012, the action was time-barred on the day of the summons, December 5, 2013

The former article L322-3 of the "Code de l'aviation civile" refers to the application of the Warsaw Convention as modified by the Hague Protocol signed on September 28, 1955, including gratuitous carriage carried out by a non-professional.
In addition, the court returns to the limitation of actions cited in article 29 of the Convention.

Pilot death
injured passengers
private plane
compensation
extinctive prescription