Court orders Virgin Nigeria to pay passenger N10m

    
A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered Virgin Nigeria Airways to pay N10m as damages to a passenger, Mrs Rosemary PJ-Akpan, for breach of contract.

Justice Okon Abang in his judgment awarded the money in favour of the plaintiff for the humiliation and embarrassment caused her when the airline’s officials stopped her from flying with her daughter to the United Kingdom in 2007.

The judge held that the plaintiff, who had sued the airline as next-best-friend to her daughter, Miss Imaobong PJ-Akpan, was embarrassed at the airport and subjected to trauma by the airline.

Imaobong was then eight years old.

The judge agreed with PJ-Akpan that  the manner by which she was stopped from travelling with her daughter made it look as if she was engaging in child trafficking.

Abang held that the airline breached its contract with the plaintiff.

He said, “I think if a contracting party breaks his contract, damages can be awarded for the disappointment, distress, upset and frustration caused by the breach.

“The airline caused embarrassment to the plaintiff when she was made to look like a trafficker of children, an embarrassment that cannot be quantified in monetary terms.

“She was subjected to emotional trauma when she had to travel to the UK without the child.

“I hereby award the sum of N10m in favour of the plaintiff payable by the defendant as general damages.”

The judge, in the verdict delivered on Monday, a copy of which our correspondent obtained on Tuesday, further awarded N65,000 to the plaintiff “being cost of excess luggage that the plaintiff was made to pay for carrying the second plaintiff’s luggage back to Nigeria from the UK.”

Justice Abang also awarded cost of N50,000 to the plaintiff, payable by the defendant.

The mother had said the return tickets for herself and her daughter were confirmed for travel from Lagos to Gatwick, London, on August 6, 2007.