## Facts

- Korean Air Lines Flight 007, an international flight from New York to Seoul, was shot down on September 1, 1983, killing all 269 people aboard.
- Representatives of deceased passengers filed wrongful-death actions against Korean Air Lines, Ltd. (KAL) in federal courts; the cases were consolidated for pretrial proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
- The parties agreed the claims were governed by the Warsaw Convention, which limits a carrier’s liability per passenger for death or personal injury.
- Airlines operating under the Montreal Agreement (a private airline agreement approved by the Civil Aeronautics Board) accepted an increased liability limit and agreed to provide notice of the Warsaw limitation in passenger tickets in print no smaller than 10-point type.
- KAL’s ticket for Flight 007 included notice of the liability limitation, but the notice was printed in 8-point type.
- Plaintiffs sought partial summary judgment, arguing KAL’s noncompliance with the Montreal Agreement’s type-size requirement eliminated the Warsaw Convention damages limitation.

## Issues

1. Whether an international air carrier loses the Warsaw Convention’s per-passenger damages limitation by failing to print the required notice in 10-point type as specified by the Montreal Agreement.
2. Whether Warsaw Convention Article 3(2)’s reference to “failure to deliver a passenger ticket” includes delivery of a ticket containing defective or nonconforming notice.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the D.C. Circuit and held that KAL did not lose the Warsaw Convention damages limitation because the passenger ticket was delivered.
- The Court interpreted “failure to deliver a passenger ticket” in Article 3(2) to mean nondelivery, not delivery with defects such as insufficient type size.
- The Court declined to impose unlimited liability as a sanction because neither the Warsaw Convention’s text nor the Montreal Agreement expressly provides that consequence for noncompliance with the 10-point type requirement.
- A concurrence agreed with the judgment, concluding plaintiffs still failed to show the treaty should be read to strip the liability limit for defective notice.

## Legal Principles

- Under the Warsaw Convention, Article 3(2)’s unlimited-liability sanction applies when a passenger ticket is not delivered, not when a delivered ticket contains irregularities or nonconforming notice.
- Treaty interpretation begins with the treaty’s text; where the text is clear, courts may not add sanctions or requirements not adopted by the parties to the treaty.
- The Convention’s structure matters: where the drafters imposed loss of liability limits for notice failures in other contexts (e.g., baggage or cargo documents), the absence of comparable language in the passenger-ticket provision supports withholding that sanction.
- A private airline agreement increasing liability limits and requiring a particular notice format does not, without explicit terms, create an unlimited-liability penalty for technical noncompliance.

## Conclusion

The Court held that KAL’s use of 8-point type for the liability-limitation notice did not forfeit the Warsaw Convention damages cap because the ticket was delivered and neither the Convention nor the Montreal Agreement expressly makes nonconforming type size a basis for unlimited liability.


Chan v. Korean Air Lines, Ltd., 490 U.S. 122 (1989)