B.C. man burnt by hot oatmeal in Air Canada lounge claims thousands in damages
An interesting dispute made its way to the Civil Resolution Tribunal after a B.C. man was burned by hot oatmeal and initiated a case against Air Canada.
According to the dispute, the applicant said he suffered burns to his hand when serving himself oatmeal in the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge.
He alleged that Air Canada was responsible for his injuries and claimed $5,000 in damages for medical expenses and pain and suffering.
Air Canada didn’t deny the burns but said it wasn’t responsible for the injuries, asking the tribunal to dismiss the dispute.
On May 11, 2023, the applicant was at Vancouver airport for a flight to Las Vegas via San Francisco.
He visited the Maple Leaf Lounge and tried to serve himself a bowl of oatmeal from a heated self-serve container.
The applicant claims that the oatmeal splashed onto his hand when he was ladling it from the container, adding that the oatmeal was “watery and extremely hot, and that it immediately caused intense pain.”
He requested a first aid kit, but an employee told him there wasn’t one available. Air Canada disputed this claim.
The applicant went to the lounge washroom to run cool water on his injured hand. Before his flight, he bought some Polysporin for his injury.
After arriving in Vegas, he visited a medical center and was diagnosed with first-degree burns to the top of his hand and index finger, as well as second-degree burns on his thumb.
He told the tribunal that it took more than a month for the burns to heal and that the healing process was “extremely uncomfortable.”
The tribunal looked at the Montreal Convention in determining who was at fault. It added that a carrier is liable for a bodily injury sustained in an accident on board aircraft, “or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking.”
Both parties disagreed about whether or not the applicant was in the course of embarking when he suffered the burn.
The tribunal said that while the applicant had taken some steps towards boarding, like clearing security, he wasn’t at the departure gate, “nor was he acting at Air Canada’s direction.”
The tribunal compared his case more to one that took place in 1995 when a passenger slipped and fell on an escalator at the airport terminal.
“At the time she fell, the passenger was following an airline agent who was leading her to the customs area. Despite this, the court found that the passenger was not in the course of embarking when she fell. The court found that there must be a ‘tight tie’ between the accident and the physical act of entering an aircraft, considering both the passenger’s location and their activities,” the tribunal decision states.
Ultimately, the tribunal found that the applicant couldn’t prove that Air Canada created an unreasonable risk of harm by allowing him to serve himself oatmeal from the container. While the burns appeared painful and uncomfortable, the tribunal determined the injuries weren’t Air Canada’s responsibility.
The tribunal dismissed all of the applicant’s claims and the dispute.