B.C. man who lost luggage on flight he never took not entitled to extra compensation, tribunal rules

A B.C. man who argued he should receive more than the maximum compensation for lost luggage because he never actually boarded the flight on which it was lost has had his claim dismissed by the province's Civil Resolution Tribunal.

In the small claims decision issued Wednesday, CRT vice chair Shelley Lopez wrote that Justin Alexandre Duguay sought $5,000 from Flair Airlines for his lost suitcase and its contents, despite the fact that the airline had already paid him $2,300. 

"Flair admits it lost the baggage," the decision reads. "It undisputedly paid Mr. Duguay $2,300 to resolve the claim, which it says is the maximum required under the Air Passenger Protection Regulation."

The decision does not specify where or when Duguay's flight was scheduled to depart, nor what his destination was. It says only that he provided his bag to a check-in agent, but was not assigned a seat and did not board the flight, leaving the airport in a taxi instead. The CRT decision does not indicate why he left.

Duguay argued that the APPR did not apply to him because he never checked in for the flight, and thus was not an "air passenger."

He didn't make this argument right away, however. In fact, he didn't make any submissions at all, "despite repeated reminders from CRT staff," until a final reply in response to Flair's evidence, according to Lopez.

The tribunal vice chair wrote that this "arguably prejudiced" Flair because it meant the airline didn't have the opportunity to respond to Duguay's assertion.

The lack of a counterargument from Flair didn't stop Lopez from rejecting Duguay's claim. She wrote that he had "cited no authority" in support of his assertion that the APPR did not apply to him, and that neither the APPR nor the Canada Transportation Act defines "passenger."

"In the absence of any authority to the contrary, as a matter of common sense I find the APPR applies to Mr. Duguay’s lost baggage claim," Lopez wrote. "I say this because it is undisputed the reason Mr. Duguay delivered the bag into Flair’s care was because Mr. Duguay was scheduled to be a passenger on Flair’s flight."

There was no evidence presented to suggest that Duguay told Flair's employee that he did not intend to fly when he handed over his bag, the vice chair added.

"In short, the bag was in Flair’s care because Mr. Duguay was scheduled as an air passenger," she wrote. "I find no reasonable basis to conclude that the APPR should not apply simply because Mr. Duguay unilaterally chose to leave the airport rather than take their flight."

Having found that the APPR applied, Lopez concluded that Duguay had already received the maximum compensation for his lost luggage, and dismissed the case.