Reprieve came on Monday for a Nigerian family based in Muscat, Oman, the Oranye couple and their three children, as a federal high court sitting in Lagos upheld their claims of breach of contract against Emirates Airlines and awarded them N27 million in damages.
The court ordered the Qatari-based airline to compensate the family to the tune of N25 million for general aggravated and exemplary damages and N2 million for legal costs. The dispute arose from a cancelled flight which the couple booked on April 11, 2001 to take them to Lagos from Oman, via Dubai.
The plaintiffs had through their lawyer Barrister Frank Eke filed a suit alleging breach of contract against Emirates for unilateral cancellation of a flight which the couple and their three children had booked and confirmed for March 16, 2011.
They averred that not only did the airline cancel the flight without notification or reasonable explanation thereby causing the plaintiffs distress and psychological trauma, but it also made them stay in Dubai for 2 days without providing them accommodation and feeding. It also compelled them to pay $350 dollars for the date change of their flight to Lagos when the change was caused by reasons not of their own making.
In their defence, the airline claimed that it at no point treated the plaintiffs in a discourteous or negligent manner and that the plaintiffs’ travel agent Pat Elo Travels was duly informed of the new flight schedule ahead of time therefore the burden of non-notification of the plaintiffs should be borne by the travel agent and not the airline.
Having listened to the heated arguments of the prosecuting and defence counsels, the presiding judge Justice Hadiza Shagari ruled that the application of the plaintiffs had merit and therefore granted all the reliefs they sought.