The law firm hired by American Airlines accused a 9-year-old girl of being secretly filmed while using an airplane toilet was “fired,” in response to lawyers for the kid’s family.
The airline, which is facing lawsuits after a flight attendant allegedly filmed girls in airplane toilets, argued in its recently filed defense that the young girl must have known there was a recording device in the bathroom.
This sensational court filing by the law firm Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP led to “intense media and public reactions,” as American Airlines claimed that the airline's lawyers had made “a mistake.”
That outside counsel has reportedly since been replaced. The law firm of Kelly Hart & Hallman, LLP has been asked by American Airlines to represent them within the lawsuit.
“Given the intense media and public backlash to the outrageous allegation, we are not surprised that American Airlines has fired its law firm,” said attorney Paul Llewellyn, a partner at Lewis & Llewellyn LLP, which is representing the girl's family.
“With this new legal representation, we hope that American Airlines will now take a fresh look at the case and finally accept responsibility for what happened to our client,” Llewellyn added. “Otherwise, we are very confident that a jury in Texas will do the right thing and hold American Airlines accountable.”
The lawsuits against American Airlines began after a Former flight attendant was arrested for allegedly filming a 14-year-old girl in the lavatory of an airplane on a flight to Boston.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, of Charlotte, North Carolina, also allegedly had footage of 4 other female passengers using the airplane's bathrooms, including the 9-year-old girl from Texas who was flying to Disneyland together with her family.
During the flight last yr, she was secretly filmed using the airplane bathroom, in response to the family's lawsuit against American Airlines. The family argues that the airline knew or must have known that Thompson “posed a danger.”
In the court filing released earlier this week, American Airlines' former law firm wrote: “Defendant would prove that any injuries or illnesses allegedly sustained by Plaintiff Mary Doe were proximately caused by her own fault and negligence.”
The airline's lawyers had previously also written in regards to the nine-year-old girl who used “the tampered toilet” on the plane: “She knew or should have known that there was a visible and illuminated recording device inside.”
This court motion was amended a number of days later.
“Our outside counsel, who was engaged with our insurance company, made an error in this filing,” the airline said earlier this week. “The attached defense is not representative of our airline and we ordered this morning that it be modified.”
“We do not believe this child is to blame, and we take the allegations against a former team member very seriously,” American Airlines added. “Our core mission is to take care of people – and the foundation of that is the safety of our customers and our team.”
American Airlines didn’t immediately respond Friday afternoon regarding the substitute of the law firm.
Thompson was arraigned on federal charges related to the Boston flight earlier this week during a hearing in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts.
Thompson, who’s in federal custody, pleaded not guilty to 1 count of attempted sexual abuse of a toddler and one count of possession of kid pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.
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