Airline passengers whose baggage is lost or damaged cannot claim compensation of more than 1,134.71 euros (1,464.13 dollars) even if they have suffered emotional trauma because of the loss, the European Union court ruled Thursday, according to dpa. The ruling means that passengers who lose, for example, a suitcase containing the last photo of their deceased grandmother cannot claim extra compensation for the grief caused by the loss. The European Court of Justice "declares that, for the purposes of determining the limit of an air carrier's liability for the damage resulting, inter alia, from the loss of baggage, the term 'damage' in the Montreal Convention must be interpreted as including both material and non-material damage," a court statement said. The international Montreal Convention sets an upper limit of 1,000 Special Drawing Rights (SDR), or 1,134.71 euros, for each passenger suffering the destruction, loss, damage or delay of their baggage, unless the passenger arranges a higher limit. In 2008, Axel Walz, a passenger with Spanish low-cost airline Clickair, sued the company for losing his suitcase and demanded 2,700 euros in compensation for the loss and an extra 500 euros for the upset this caused. The Barcelona court handling the case asked the ECJ whether the Montreal Convention's limit on compensation applied only to the physical loss of baggage, or whether it covered both physical and emotional loss. The ECJ argued that the convention was intended to set "clear limits on compensation," so that passengers could be "compensated easily and swiftly ... without imposing a very heavy burden of damages on air carriers." Moreover, the convention itself makes no distinction between physical and moral damage. Therefore, the Montreal limit "is absolute and includes both material and non-material damage," the court decided. It now falls to the Barcelona court to rule on Walz' suit.
