Delta Sued Again Over ‘Dangerous’ Beverage Carts After Passenger Left With Serious Spinal Injury
- Delta is facing a third lawsuit in less than a year over 'dangerous' beverage carts after a passenger claims he was left with serious spinal injuries. What is going on?
Does Delta Air Lines have abnormally heavy beverage carts? That seems like a reasonable question to ask after yet another passenger filed suit against the Atlanta-based carrier after allegedly sustaining serious injuries when a flight attendant knocked a cart into his leg.
Christopher Harris from New York operated his own construction company until the November 2022 incident aboard a Delta flight left him with such debilitating injuries that he was no longer able to work, defaulting on contracts, which led to his business going under.
In a recently filed lawsuit in a Michigan district court, Christopher claims it was the reckless act of two flight attendants aboard a Delta flight from Detroit to Phoenix on November 16, 2022, that left him with inoperable spinal injuries that will require long-term pain management and rehabilitation.
Christopher was sitting towards the back of the Boeing 737 in an aisle seat at the time of the accident. He was sleeping at the time and admits that his legs were stretched out into the aisle.
As the flight attendants wrapped up the beverage service, they rolled the cart back towards the galley at the back of the plane. As they went to pass Christopher, however, the cart struck his extended leg.
Flight attendants will tell you this is a fairly common occurrence, even if crew members do their best to steer the cart without hitting anyone. What happened to Christopher, though, was anything but normal.
Christopher says he immediately suffered pain, swelling, and numbness in his right leg and had to be helped out of the airport on a wheelchair because he was in so much pain.
He soon developed persistent neurological symptoms in both legs, and subsequent medical investigations discovered he was suffering from “broad-based disc protrusions with bilateral foraminal narrowing and nerve impingement.”
Christopher’s orthopedic surgeon later told him that an operation would not make his condition better, resulting in a devastating impact on his life.
His lawsuit accuses Delta of negligence as one of the two flight attendants operating the cart was pulling the cart with her back towards the passengers and “without maintaining a clear line of sight.”
Christopher further alleges that the flight attendants failed to observe hazards, like passenger legs, in the aisle, and failed to provide an audible warning that the cart was being wheeled through the cabin.
What is odd about this incident is that this is at least the third time in less than a year that Delta has been sued for a beverage cart causing serious injuries to passengers.
In August 2024, for example, Gail Hamilton of Pinellas, Florida, claimed she suffered a ‘serious’ shoulder injury after a flight attendant pushed a loaded beverage cart into her several times during an international flight from Paris to New York JFK.
That incident also occurred in 2022, just a few months after Christopher was injured. Delta’s lawyers denied any wrongdoing and argued Hamilton’s injuries were caused solely by her “own culpable and negligent conduct.”
In April, however, Delta confirmed that it had reached an undisclosed settlement with Hamilton and the case was dismissed.
Just over a year later, in June 2023, Gerald Goldstein also said he was seriously injured on a connecting Delta service from Florida to Rome, Italy, when a flight attendant pushed a heavy beverage cart into his knee.
Again, Delta’s lawyers argued Goldstein was to blame for the accident, but the case was later dismissed after a settlement agreement was reached between the two sides.
What happens so often in these cases is that out-of-court settlements are reached, meaning there is very little case law to determine whether airlines really can be held liable for these types of accidents.
In the case of Hamilton and Goldstein, these were international flights that were governed by an international treaty known as the Montreal Convention, which places a strict liability on airlines for injuries sustained by passengers during a flight.
The main defense for airlines in these cases is that the accident was actually the fault of the passenger (whether deliberately or recklessly) although it’s rare for this standard to be tested in court because airlines are so keen to settle before these cases reach a jury.
Sadly, Delta will settle. Jim Gaffigan, the comedian, is known for his play on “Hot Pockets”.. This BS lawsuit is called, “deep pockets”.
Spinal doctor here – what is described is very barn door degenerative spinal disease. There’s literally no conceivable way that lower limb trauma in this way, in a seated position, would ever cause this pattern of disease, which in any case, is not something seen in trauma of any sort.
It would seem that if the passengers legs were in the aisle, then the passenger was to blame.
sorry but his occurs every day on every flight…….people will often stand up with headphones on right as the cart is coming up the aisle and crash………flight attendants make announcements to keep the aisle free of “any potential trip hazards such as bags, bag straps or feet”. Again nobody listens or they’re wearing headphones.