Yasuko Ishikawa v. Delta Airlines, Inc., a Georgia Corporation, and Labone, Inc., a Delaware Corporation

We decide whether an airlines employee has a state common law tort action against a negligent urine testing laboratory.

Facts

Yasuko Ishikawa, a Delta flight attendant, got fired for failing a drug-detection urine test. But the test was negligently performed, and the result had no validity whatsoever. Delta rehired her, and paid her the $68,920 of income she had lost. She sued LabOne, the urine test laboratory to which Delta had sent her urine, for negligence. The jury verdict establishes that LabOne negligently analyzed and reported her results, causing $68,000 of economic damages, $332,000 of noneconomic damages. The jury awarded no punitive damages.

While she was flying from Japan to Portland, Oregon, on September 20, 1999, Ishikawa was told she would be required to take a random drug test when the plane landed. The flight took nine hours, and Ishikawa drank several liters of water and tea during the flight. When the plane landed, she provided the urine sample.

There have to be safeguards to assure the accuracy of urine tests. Someone who has ingested drugs could otherwise substitute someone else’s urine, that of a cooperative horse, or colored water, to generate a negative…