Chagnon

ORDER REMANDING CASE TO STATE COURT

Plaintiff Jose Sulaiman Chagnon filed this action in state court on November 21, 1984 seeking damages for injuries he sustained as an airplane passenger arising out of an aborted takeoff of a Japan Air Lines (“JAL”) flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Tokyo, Japan on November 30, 1983. Service of the summons and complaint was made on JAL on October 31, 1986. Defendant then filed a petition for removal on November 21, 1986 pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441 (b) asserting that this Court had original jurisdiction over plaintiff’s claim in that the action arose under a treaty of the United States, namely, the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Transportation by Air, October 12, 1929, 49 Stat. 3000 , T.S. No. 876, 137 L.N.T.S. 11 (1934) (current version at 49 U.S.C. App. § 1502 note (1982)) (hereinafter the “Warsaw Convention”).

The Warsaw Convention is a treaty adhered to by the United States, and is therefore the supreme law of the land. E.g., Air France v. Saks, 470 U.S. 392, 406 , 105 S.Ct. 1338, 1346 , 84 L.Ed.2d 289 (1985). The Warsaw Convention applies to all “international transportation” of persons, baggage,…