Ryanair ordered to pay €31,000 compensation to injured passenger by Seville Court

In a recent ruling, the Seville Mercantile Court has ordered Ryanair to compensate a passenger with €30,793 for damages after injuries sustained during her descent from one of the airline's planes. The injured woman suffered a fractured tibia and fibula, leading to three days in hospital and two surgeries….

The incident occurred on February 7th, 2020, when the passenger was disembarking from a Ryanair flight that had travelled between Seville and Alicante. Represented by lawyer Enrique Osuna from Bufete Osuna, the woman filed a lawsuit against the airline following her fall down the aircraft's stairs.

According to the court's ruling issued on July 31st, the woman's claim was based on the Montreal Convention of 1999, which stipulates the carrier's responsibility for injuries suffered on board an aircraft or during boarding and disembarkation, unless the airline can prove that the injuries resulted from the passenger's negligence or wrongful act or omission.

Ryanair had contested any liability in the case, claiming that the stairway "was in proper condition, with necessary and precise information and instructions provided for passenger disembarkation."

However, the court determined that "according to the regulation, the carrier's liability is not contingent on the cause of the injury or whether it can be attributed to their negligence or breach of duty but rather on the fact that the damage occurred on board during boarding or disembarkation. Since the injury occurred during disembarkation, the carrier is held responsible."

In this regard, the court dismissed any attempt to fully or partially absolve the company of the attributed responsibility, as Ryanair failed to demonstrate that the cause of the damage was "the negligence of the claimant or her wrongful act or omission."

Consequently, the court has ordered Ryanair to compensate the passenger with €30,793. This amount includes €18,968 for personal damages, €1,202 for medical expenses, €1,017 for sequelae, and €604 for additional expenses plus interest. The court has excluded accommodation costs and part of the pharmacy expenses due to a "lack of justification."

Ryanair has not publicly commented on the court's decision at the time of this report.