Airlines False imprisonment?

dahermit

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Home > Library > Law & Legal Issues > Law EncyclopediaThis entry contains information applicable to United States law only.


A tort (a civil wrong) that consists of an unlawful restraint of an individual's personal liberty or freedom of movement by another purporting to act according to the law.

The term false arrest is sometimes used interchangeably with that of the tort of false imprisonment, and a false arrest is one method of committing a false imprisonment. A false arrest must be perpetrated by one who asserts that he or she is acting pursuant to legal authority, whereas a false imprisonment is any unlawful confinement. For example, if a sheriff arrests a person without any probable cause or reasonable basis, the sheriff has committed the torts of false arrest and false imprisonment. The sheriff has acted under the assumption of legal authority to deprive a person unlawfully of his or her liberty of movement. If, however, a driver refuses to allow a passenger to depart from a vehicle, the driver has committed the tort of false imprisonment because he or she unlawfully restrains freedom of movement. The driver has not committed false arrest, however, since he or she is not claiming to act under legal authority. A person who knowingly gives police false information in order to have someone arrested has committed the tort of malicious prosecution.

An action can be instituted for the damages ensuing from false arrest, such as loss of salary while imprisoned, or injury to reputation that results in a pecuniary loss to the victim. Ill will and malice are not elements of the tort, but if these factors are proven, punitive damages can be awarded in addition to compensatory damages or nominal damages.

Under the above, it would seem that airlines sometimes are guilty of "false imprisonment". Note that sometimes more than just inconvenient, old people (me), with heath problems (diabetes, severely leaking aortic valve in my case for example), the holding of passengers in air craft without air conditioning, without water, is in fact not only illegal, but a danger to life. However, they do not seem to be charged with such; just given fines. If I were in such confinement, without water and in sweltering heat, it could result in my death. However, If refused exit, and I went to the rear and popped the safety slide in an attempt to exit, I am sure that I would be arrested and prosecuted despite the conditions threating my life.
In any case, given the definition of false imprisonment, a passenger should be allowed to exit a parked aircraft upon demand.
What say the resident "legal scholars"?
 
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