BETTY KYEI ASANTE v. KENYA AIRWAYS & KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES

On 28-07-2009, the plaintiff, Mrs. Betty Kyei Asante, issued a writ in this court against the Kenya Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (the 1st and 2nd Defendants respectively) claiming the following reliefs:

1. Specific performance of the contract of carriage dated 21-01-2009 between the plaintiff and the defendants.

2. General damages for breach of contract.

The case of the plaintiff is that, on 21-01-2009, she purchased an economy class return air ticker from the 2nd defendant acting for and on behalf of the 1st defendant in Kumasi to enable her travel on the 1st defendant’s airline to Mumbai, India, to purchase goods for her business in Ghana. The plaintiff boarded the 1st defendant flight KQ509 from Accra to Nairobi on route to Mumbai. While airborne, she was returning to her seat from the washroom when suddenly the aircraft was handled in a manner that violently threw her to the floor without any or any reasonable notice. She passed out, instantly, only to regain consciousness at the rear end of the aircraft with the cabin crew surrounding her and blood oozing freely from her forehead.

It is, further, the case of the plaintiff that, when the aircraft landed in Nairobi, the 1st defendant’s officials took her to the Kenya Airways Clinic where she was given first aid and her wounds dressed. The clinic, instead of giving her the necessary drugs, wrote a prescription for her to go and look for and buy, even though they were aware that she was a stranger in Nairobi and her condition would make it extremely difficult and painful for her to comb through the streets of Nairobi searching for the prescribed drugs.

The plaintiff complains that the 1st defendant left her on her own and she had to spend two days in Nairobi at her own expense before proceeding to Mumbai. At Mumbai, she was in so much pain and discomfiture that she was compelled to spend most of her time in the hotel without being able to do the business she had gone there to do. She had to return to the 1st defendant’s clinic in Nairobi on 29-01-2009 for further treatment as a result of the unbearable pain she was going through, before she returned to Accra.

Upon her return to Accra, the plaintiff says she reported to the 1st defendant’s officers who asked her to find money to go to hospital and submit her bills later for settlement. So, on 30-01-2009, she reported to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, in Kumasi, with severe headache, dizziness and a de