Request for a preliminary ruling from the Landesgericht Korneuburg (Austria) lodged on 10 November 2020 – JR v Austrian Airlines AG
(Case C-589/20)
Language of the case: German
Referring court
Landesgericht Korneuburg
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: JR
Defendant: Austrian Airlines AG
Questions referred
Is Article 17(1) of the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, concluded in Montreal on 28 May 1999, signed by the European Community on 9 December 1999 and approved on its behalf by Council Decision 2001/539/EC of 5 April 2001, 1 to be interpreted as meaning that the concept of ‘accident’ within the meaning of that provision covers a situation in which a passenger falls on the last third of a mobile boarding stairway when disembarking from an aircraft – for no ascertainable reason – and sustains an injury, which was not caused by an object used when serving passengers within the meaning of the decision of the Court of Justice of 19 December 2019, C-532/18, 2 and there was no defect in the quality of the stairway, which, in particular, also was not slippery?
Is Article 20 of the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, concluded in Montreal on 28 May 1999, signed by the European Community on 9 December 1999 and approved on its behalf by Council Decision 2001/539/EC of 5 April 2001, to be interpreted as meaning that any liability on the part of the air carrier ceases to exist in its entirety if circumstances such as those described in point 1 exist and the passenger was not holding on to the handrail of the stairway at the time of the fall?
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1 2001/539/EC: Council Decision of 5 April 2001 on the conclusion by the European Community of the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (the Montreal Convention) (OJ 2001 L 194, p. 38).
2 ECLI:EU:C:2019:1127.