Court Addresses Legal Duty Owed By Travel Agency To Inform Travelers Of Airline Safety Record

Following an airplane crash in the Northern Mariana Islands, a group of Chinese plaintiffs sued the travel agency that booked them on the airline alleging that the agency was negligent  in not informing them of the airline’s faulty safety record and the airline’s failure to provide safety instructions in Chinese to Chinese tourists.  The travel agency filed a motion to dismiss the negligence claim and argued that a travel agency owes no duty of care to a customer that it books on an airline with regard to the airline’s safety record or particular aircraft safety instructions.  The U.S. District Court for the District of the Northern Mariana Islands rejected the travel agency’s duty argument and reasoned that in that jurisdiction, the common law of negligence created a duty to exercise reasonable care in all conduct and the common law of agency created a duty on the part of the principal to inform the agent of any facts pertinent to the relationship.  The court explained that a jury question existed as to whether the travel agency in this circumstance breached its duty to exercise reasonable care and/or its duty to inform its customers about pertinent information.  However, the pleadings failed to adequately articulate the requirements of a true agency relationship and failed to plead causation between the allegedly negligent conduct of the travel agency and the harm suffered in the plane crush.  The court granted the travel agency’s motion to dismiss with leave to amend.