Woman appeals case after court dismissal

A passenger rights advocate is appealing a court decision that dismissed a claim by a woman who was denied boarding on an Air Canada flight and then told she may have to sit apart from her young daughter on another flight.

Gabor Lukacs said Wednesday that he filed legal briefs on behalf of Nicole Paine, who was travelling with her twomonth-old twins, three yearold daughter, her mother and a dog in December 2016 as they relocated from Vancouver to Sydney, N.S.

Lukacs said he is appealing a Nova Scotia small claims court decision that found Paine was not entitled to compensation from the airline because she did not prove she was unable to board the flight because it was overbooked.

“They were at the airport on time, Air Canada didn’t have the check-in counters properly staffed — there was only one person for a long line — they were in the line on time and then they said, ‘Actually you missed the flight,”’ Lukacs said. “And under the Canadian Transportation Agency’s principles that’s all she has to prove to be entitled to denied boarding compensation.”

Paine, with the help of Lukacs, filed a $2,400 suit against Air Canada last year, saying she was wrongly denied boarding the flight and then made to choose to possibly sit away from her daughter on another later flight or miss it altogether.

In the decision — a written ruling was released Tuesday but originally handed down in April — adjudicator Augustus Richardson said Paine did not prove she was unable to board the flight because it was overbooked. Paine and her family arrived at the Vancouver airport within the time recommended by the airline for a 1 p.m. flight that connected in Toronto. They faced a long line, but made it to a kiosk in time to clear security and board, the decision states. Richardson found that the agent they were dealing with “appeared to be confused” and told the family they missed the boarding time and could not get on their flight.