Legal Blog of Attorney Greg Curry

News reports  indicate that Lufthansa (the owner/parent company of Germanwings) did know that Andreas Lubitz had depression problems, even during his pilot training: Lubitz...told his Lufthansa flight training school in 2009 that he had a "previous episode of severe depression," the airline said Tuesday. Despite this knowledge, Lufthansa allowed Lubitz to continue training to be a pilot and eventually put him in a cockpit, in a position where he could cause the mass murder of 149 people. Information like this supports a claim for negligent hiring or retention. Damages to make victims "whole" are called compensatory damages. But could Germanwings/Lufthansa be held liable for additional damages, damages to punish them (called "punitive damages") for allowing Lubitz to complete his training and get in a cockpit, knowing he had mental health issues? From a purely New York law perspective, probably not, because punitive damages are hard to get and usual...

There has been a lot of news about the terrible crash of Germanwings Flight 9525, which resulted in the death of 150 people when the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, (apparently) intentionally crashed the plane into the French Alps. Reports are that Lubitz had suicidal tendencies and had been declared medically unfit to fly . What may soon follow are lawsuits against Germanwings and Lufthansa (which owns Germanwings) for claims similar to what New York calls "negligent retention": A claim for negligent supervision or retention arises when an employer places an employee in a position to cause foreseeable harm, harm which the injured party most probably would have been spared had the employer taken reasonable care in supervising or retaining the employee. Vione v. Tewell,  12 Mic.3d 973, 979, 820 N.Y.S.2d 682 (Sup.Ct., New York County, 2006). Under New York law, a claim for negligent hiring, supervision or retention, "in addition to the standard elements of negligence,...