Delta Airlines 2002 Annual Report Download - page 21

In January 2003, the District Court denied the plaintiffs' motion for
class action certification. Plaintiffs have filed a petition for review of this
order with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has not yet
decided whether to permit this interlocutory appeal. Delta has filed with the
District Court a motion for summary judgment which is pending. The trial of this
lawsuit is scheduled to begin in November 2003.
Power Travel International, Inc., et al. v. American Airlines, et al.
In August 2002, a travel agency filed a purported class action lawsuit in New
York state court against Delta, American Airlines, Continental Airlines,
Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and JetBlue Airways, on behalf of an alleged
nationwide class of U.S. travel agents. JetBlue has been dismissed from the
case, and the remaining defendants removed the action to the U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants
breached their contracts with and their duties of good faith and fair dealing to
U.S. travel agencies when these airlines discontinued the payment of published
base commissions to U.S. travel agencies at various times beginning in March
2002. The plaintiffs' complaint seeks unspecified damages, as well as
declaratory and injunctive relief. The defendants have filed a motion to dismiss
this lawsuit, which is pending before the District Court. Similar litigation
involving contract claims alleged under the agency agreements applicable to
Canadian travel agents is pending against Delta and other airlines in Canada.
Jeans v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. In May 2000, an individual filed an
amended class action lawsuit against Delta in the Circuit Court of Jackson
County, Missouri on behalf of all persons who relinquished their seats on an
overbooked Delta flight in exchange for a travel voucher that may be redeemed
for a round-trip, economy class Delta ticket. The complaint asserts claims for
fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment. It alleges, among other things,
that Delta failed to disclose that it limits the number of seats on each flight
that may be obtained by redeeming travel vouchers. The plaintiff, who has
requested a jury trial, is seeking unspecified damages. In January 2003, the
Circuit Court granted Delta's motion for summary judgment dismissing the
plaintiff's claims. The plaintiff has appealed to the Missouri Court of Appeals.
Multidistrict Pilot Retirement Plan Litigation. During the June 2001
quarter, the Delta Pilots Retirement Plan ("Retirement Plan") and related
non-qualified pilot retirement plans sponsored and funded by Delta were named as
defendants in five purported class action lawsuits filed in federal district
courts in California, Massachusetts, Ohio, New Mexico and New York. The
complaints (1) seek to assert claims on behalf of a class consisting of certain
groups of retired and active Delta pilots; (2) allege that the calculation of
the retirement benefits of the plaintiffs and the class violated the Retirement
Plan and the Internal Revenue Code; and (3) seek unspecified damages. In October
2001, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation granted Delta's motion to
transfer these cases to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
Georgia for coordinated pretrial proceedings. Discovery in these cases is
proceeding.
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