## Facts

- Eleanor M. Stagl, age 77, flew on Delta from Orlando to New York’s LaGuardia Airport on May 1, 1993; the flight arrived about 30 minutes late.
- At Delta’s baggage claim, Stagl described a crowded, agitated scene with passengers pushing, shoving, and rapidly grabbing bags from a moving carousel.
- Stagl alleged Delta provided no personnel, warnings, or crowd-control measures and did not set aside a safer area for elderly or disabled passengers to retrieve luggage.
- While Stagl stood at the carousel’s edge, a nearby passenger removed a bag, causing another suitcase to fall off the carousel, strike her, and knock her down.
- Stagl suffered a fractured hip and sued Delta for negligence, claiming Delta failed to use reasonable care in supervising and managing baggage retrieval and in protecting her from foreseeable conduct of other passengers.

## Issues

1. Whether an airline operating a baggage retrieval area owes a duty of reasonable care to protect passengers from foreseeable injuries caused by other passengers’ crowd behavior at a baggage carousel.
2. Whether summary judgment was improper because a reasonable jury could find foreseeability, breach, and causation on the alleged facts.
3. Whether the denial of discovery into similar prior incidents at Delta baggage carousels was an abuse of discretion where such evidence could bear on foreseeability and the reasonableness of precautions.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for Delta and remanded for further proceedings.
- The court held a reasonable jury could find Delta owed Stagl a duty of reasonable care and that the type of injury alleged fell within foreseeable risks associated with an unmanaged, crowded baggage carousel.
- The court rejected the argument that the other passenger’s conduct necessarily constituted a superseding cause as a matter of law, because foreseeable third-party acts may remain within the scope of the risk created by a defendant’s negligence.
- The court held the district court erred in denying discovery concerning similar incidents, because such evidence could be relevant to foreseeability and to whether Delta’s conduct was reasonable.

## Legal Principles

- A premises operator or service provider with control over an area used by patrons must exercise reasonable care to protect them from foreseeable harm, including harm caused by other patrons when crowd conditions and operations create or heighten the risk.
- Intervening acts by third parties do not cut off liability when those acts are reasonably foreseeable results of the defendant’s alleged negligence.
- In negligence cases, foreseeability, reasonableness of precautions, and related causation questions are commonly fact questions for the jury; summary judgment is improper when reasonable factfinders could differ.
- Discovery regarding prior similar incidents may be relevant to foreseeability and the scope of reasonable precautions; denying such discovery can be improper when foreseeability is a disputed basis for dispositive relief.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit held that a jury could reasonably find Delta responsible for failing to take reasonable steps to manage foreseeable crowd-related risks at a baggage carousel and that discovery into similar incidents should have been allowed before disposing of the negligence claim on summary judgment.


Stagl v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 52 F.3d 463 (2d Cir. 1995)