Court of Appeal, Fort-de-France, Civil Division, n°15/00477

Montréal Convention of 1999 for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air

France

Court of Appeal, Fort-de-France, Civil Division

Mr. Jean-Christophe BRUYERE (president)

The article 35 of the Montreal Convention relates to the time limits for bringing an action. The paragraph 2 of this article provides that the method of determining the time limit is based on the law of the court in which the case is brought, in this case French law. The Court then indicates both that the general law of subrogation and insurance law subordinates the success of the subrogation action to the payment of the claim to the beneficiary. In this case, this means that the payment of the indemnity to the rights holders must be made. Moreover, the burden of proof for this payment belongs to the insurance company. Although the insurance company submitted the agreements establishing the amount of the indemnity, these agreements did not designate the beneficiary of the subrogation. The Court of Appeal concluded that the proof of payment of the indemnity had not been provided, and that the insurance company could no longer take advantage of the subrogation remedy.

That in this case if, contrary to the airline company’s claim, the spouses Z… declared to their representatives when they arrived in Tunis the damage caused to their luggage, it was without precision of the missing belongings and the district court rightly considered that the respondents did not provide proof that their belongings had been stolen during the transport of their luggage, the computer and photographic equipment for which they are requesting reimbursement. The only production of the receipts of the purchase being insufficient to establish this fact;
That however, the degradation of their suitcases is not disputed, pictures being also added to the debates, that they must thus be allocated the sum of 500 euros corresponding to the price of two new suitcases, without the price being reduced for obsolescence, since spouses Z… will be required to buy two new suitcases to replace the ones damaged