Plaintiff, Ahmed Mumtaz, sued Etihad Airways P.J.S.C. ("Etihad") claiming severe head injuries allegedly sustained on an Etihad flight between Abu Dhabi and New York. The action, originally brought in New Jersey state court, was removed to federal court for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey pursuant to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act because Etihad is wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, and also under the Montreal Convention as the alleged incident occurred during the course of international transportation. During the course of extensive discovery, it became clear that plaintiff's claim had been fabricated, and that he had not sustained a bodily injury as a result of an "accident" as required by Article 17 of the Montreal Convention. In fact, there was no credible evidence that plaintiff sustained any injuries during the flight. While this appeared to be a classic "he said, she said" case, which ordinarily would preclude summary judgment, Etihad argued that summary judgment was warranted because there was no genuine issue of material fact, and that the Court should follow the rationale of the Second Circuit in Jeffreys v. City of New York, 426 F.3d 549 (2d Cir. 2005) (summary judgment warranted where plaintiff "relied almost exclusively on his own testimony, much of which is contradictory and incomplete, [making it] impossible for a district court to determine whether the jury could reasonably find for the plaintiff.") While not binding, the Court relied heavily on the Jeffreys decision and, after considering the numerous inconsistencies in plaintiff's versions of events, held that no reasonable juror could find in plaintiff's favor, i.e. that he suffered bodily injury as the result of an Article 17 "accident" under the Montreal Convention. Consequently, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of Etihad. This was a significant decision in that it is the first reported decision applying the holding of Jeffreys to support the granting of summary judgment. Mumtaz v. Etihad Airways, 2014 WL 7405216 (D. N.J. Dec. 30, 2014).
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