On 4 January 1998, Dr Abid Hanson, a passenger on Olympic Airways Flight 417 from Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

 via Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 died following exposure to secondhand smoke.

Hanson, who had a "history of recurrent anaphylactic reactions" and sensitivity to secondhand smoke, had requested a non-smoking seat. When the family boarded the Boeing 747

Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...

 aircraft in Athens, the people found that the assigned seats were three rows ahead of the economy-class smoking area; there was no partition between the smoking and non-smoking section. The family repeatedly requested a seat further away from the smoking section but the flight attendant, Maria Leptourgou, would not move the passenger to any of the 11 other unoccupied seats on the aircraft. The passenger felt a reaction to the smoke and died several hours later despite his doctor's aid.

Background

Smoking on international flights was already seen as a safety issue by the ICAO's aviation medicine

Aviation medicine

Aviation medicine, also called flight medicine or aerospace medicine, is a preventive or occupational medicine in which the patients/subjects are pilots, aircrews, or persons involved in spaceflight...

 section, which had sought an outright ban by 1996.

Legal case

The case resulted in the Olympic Airways v. Husain, case in the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

. Before the case reached the Supreme Court, the lower courts had decided as follows:

The District Court found petitioner liable for Dr. Hanson’s death, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed, concluding that, under [ the definition in Air France v. Saks, ] of “accident,” the flight attendant’s refusal to re-seat Dr. Hanson was clearly external to him, and unexpected and un-usual in light of industry standards, Olympic policy, and the simple nature of the requested accommodation.

On initial appeal, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...

 unanimously affirmed the finding of the District Court that Leptourgou's actions not only met the definition of “accident” under Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention

Warsaw Convention

The Warsaw Convention is an international convention which regulates liability for international carriage of persons, luggage or goods performed by aircraft for reward....

, but also rose to the level of being “wilful misconduct” under Article 25; by passing that threshold, it removed a $75,000 cap on damages.

The Court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals, holding

[T]hat the conduct here constitutes an "accident" under Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.

The court upheld the Court of Appeals awarded of 1.4 million USD in compensatory damages against Olympic Airways.