A judge for the US District Court for the District of Maryland has dismissed negligence charges filed by a flight attendant who blames the airline for her husband's COVID-19 related death. The case is Estate of Madden v. Sw. Airlines, Co., Civil Action No. 1:21-cv-00672-SAG, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117266 (D. Md. June 23, 2021).
Carol Madden was a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines (Southwest) when she was required by her employer to attend training in July 2020. Three days later, she became ill with COVID-19. Carol Madden's husband, William Madden, became ill with Covid-19 ten days after Carol contracted the virus, and died from virus complications in August 2020.
Carol sued Southwest on behalf of herself and the Estate of Mr. Madden, asserting four negligence-based causes of action related to Mr. Madden's contraction and subsequent death from COVID-19.
The court considered several factors in determining whether Southwest had a duty to protect Mr. Madden, and eventually concluded that allowing the suit to continue could open the floodgates for similar litigation.
The ruling noted that "Maryland's third-party duty case law and its emphasis on limiting the class of prospective future plaintiffs heavily informs the Court's balancing."
The ruling also said that "Maryland courts have made their priorities with regard to third-party duties clear, and the prospect of an unstemmed and ill-defined tide of third-party plaintiffs bringing suit predominates the duty analysis."
The claims were dismissed without prejudice.
Editor's Note: The parties did not spend much time on insurance for the risk, but the Court agreed with Southwest's stance that "COVID-19 claims are new for insurance companies and whether insurance coverage applies to COVID-19-related claims will be dependent on the specific facts, policy language, and applicable law in each case." The Court felt it was unable to draw a broad conclusion on how the imposition of a duty would impact insurance.