Willie H. Harris, Ernestine Harris v. Polskie Linie Lotnicze, AKA Lot Polish Airlines, a Corporation, Defendant

Appellants challenge the amount of damages the district court awarded them as compensation for their son’s death in an airplane crash. The district court in fixing the compensation applied Polish law. Appellants argue that it ought to have applied California law. They further assert that the damages awarded were inadequate under either Polish or California law. We affirm.

I.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

An Ilyushin 62 airplane owned and operated by the appellee, Polskie Linie Lotnicze (LOT), crashed near Warsaw, Poland on March 14,1980. All of the passengers died in the crash. Appellants, Willie and Ernestine Harris (the Harrises), are the parents of one passenger, Walter Harris. LOT is wholly owned by the government of Poland.

The Harrises filed a wrongful death action against LOT in the United States District for the Northern District of California. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York for coordinated and consolidated pre-trial proceedings. That court held that the Warsaw Convention and Montreal Agreement applied. In re Air Crash Disaster, on Mar. H, 1980, 535 F.Supp.…