## Facts

- Iberia, Spanish Airlines, Inc. (Iberia) organized Sergio da Silva Couto’s international trip to Europe.
- During the trip, Iberia lost da Silva Couto’s suitcase.
- Da Silva Couto recovered his personal items only after returning to Rio de Janeiro.
- Da Silva Couto said he traveled with a group of lawyers, judges, and jurists, and that being deprived of his clothing and medicine for the duration of the trip caused pain, humiliation, and revulsion.
- Da Silva Couto sued Iberia in Brazil seeking moral (non-pecuniary) damages based on the luggage loss and delay.
- The trial court ordered Iberia to pay US$250 per day of delay in returning the luggage, totaling US$5,000.
- The intermediate appellate court reversed, reasoning that the Warsaw Convention limited an air carrier’s liability to about US$400 for baggage and that there were no moral damages; it also stated that, even if moral damages existed, the Convention’s limit would cover them.
- Da Silva Couto filed an extraordinary appeal to Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court, arguing that the appellate court violated constitutional rights that should prevail over international conventions.

## Issues

1. In international air carriage, can the Warsaw Convention’s baggage-liability limitation cap or preclude recovery of moral damages sought under Brazilian constitutional guarantees?
2. Does the loss and delayed return of a passenger’s baggage—depriving the passenger of clothing and medicine during the trip and causing humiliation and suffering—support a compensable moral-damages award?

## Decision

- The Supreme Federal Court reversed the appellate court’s decision.
- The court held that the passenger’s constitutionally protected right to seek compensation for moral damages could not be nullified by applying the Warsaw Convention’s monetary limitation as a ceiling on non-pecuniary harm.
- The court treated the passenger’s claimed humiliation and suffering from being deprived of essential items during the trip as a cognizable basis for moral damages.
- The court restored the moral-damages relief awarded at trial.

## Legal Principles

- Brazilian constitutional protections for compensation for moral damages control when a lower court applies an international convention in a way that would eliminate or effectively deny that remedy.
- The Warsaw Convention’s baggage-liability limit governs compensation for baggage loss/delay in the convention’s framework, but it does not operate as a categorical bar to moral-damages claims grounded in constitutional guarantees.
- Loss of, or prolonged deprivation of access to, personal baggage (including items such as clothing and medicine) may cause non-pecuniary injury—such as humiliation and emotional suffering—supporting moral damages.
- A court may measure moral damages by reference to the duration of the deprivation where that duration bears on the intensity of the non-pecuniary harm.

## Conclusion

In an extraordinary appeal arising from a lost-suitcase incident on an Iberia-organized Europe trip, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court held that the Warsaw Convention’s baggage-liability limit could not be used to defeat or cap constitutionally protected moral-damages recovery for the passenger’s humiliation and suffering caused by being without his clothing and medicine for the duration of the trip, and it reversed the appellate court and restored the trial court’s award.


Sergio da Silva Couto v. Iberia, Spanish Airlines, Inc., Extraordinary Appeal 172720-9 (Rio de Janeiro) RE-172720 (1996)