In re Raejean S. Bonham dba World Plus
Bankruptcy No. F95-00897
Unofficial Web Site
Delta Air Lines, under authority of the earlier Settlement with the Trustee, has been pursuing its claims against Raejean Bonham in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division. U.S. District Judge Horace T. Ward's Order and Judgment are set out here:
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DELTA AIR LINES, INC., Plaintiff, |
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) CIVIL ACTION |
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ROBERT Y. SEWARD et al., Defendants. |
) 1:93-CV-1036-HTW |
This matter came before the court for a hearing on December 18, 1997, on plaintiff's claims for damages against defendants Robert Y. Seward, Lisa Daumann, a/k/a Lisa Seward, Keith R. Haddon, KBCO, Inc., Raejean Bonham and World Plus, Inc. This court has already ruled on the merits of this case and thereby granted summary judgment as to liability in an earlier order issued on January 30, 1995. The defendants were provided by this court with a written notice of the hearing on damages.1 The plaintiff Delta Airlines and plaintiff's counsel were present at the hearing, but the defendants did not appear. The court hereby makes its findings of fact and conclusions of law as contemplated by Rule 52 of the Federal rules of Civil Procedure.
1Plaintiff's counsel informed the court that, prior to the hearing, he had telephone conversations with defendants Seward and Haddon, who are the principals of KBCO, Inc., and with defendant Bonham, who is the principal of World Plus, Inc., and that these defendants in the telephone conversations acknowledged their receipt of the court's notice of hearing.
On January 31, 1995, this court entered summary judgment on plaintiff's state law claim of tortious interference with business and contractual relations against defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, KBCO, Bonham and World Plus. In entering summary judgment, the court found that the defendants, in soliciting the purchase and sale of Delta frequent flyer awards and tickets, made false representations to Delta that the persons for whom the tickets are obtained are relatives and that the awards and tickets have not been purchased or sold. The court also found that the defendants' buying and selling of the awards and tickets in violation of Delta's rules renders the tickets invalid for travel. The court further found in entering summary judgment that the defendants' conduct resulted in willful and malicious injury to Delta.
At the December 18, 1997, hearing on damages, plaintiff presented live witnesses, oral testimony, and documentary evidence pertaining to the number of frequent flyer tickets purchased or sold by each defendant. Plaintiff presented evidence that the numbers of trips reflected in their presentation were counted from the business records of defendants Bonham and World Plus. Based upon the exhibits and supporting testimony, the court makes a determination that defendants Bonham and World Plus improperly sold 19,906 Delta frequent flyer tickets.
OF these 19,906 tickets, supporting oral testimony and documentary evidence identify 1,142 tickets as having been acquired by defendants Bonham and World Plus from defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, and KBCO. Accordingly, the court has made a determination that defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, and KBCO are jointly and severally liable with defendants Bonham and World Plus for 1,142 of the 19,906 tickets sold by Bonham and World Plus. Based on the evidence presented by plaintiff at the hearing, the court finds that the summary evidence presented was a reasonable reflection of the number of tickets for which the defendants are responsible.
Because of the factual circumstances of this case and in the interests of judicial economy, the plaintiff requested that the court award damages based on a single fare rather than by matching specific fares to all 19,906 tickets. Plaintiff presented evidence to the court showing that it arrived at the said fare by identifying, from historic airline fare data, the lowest full fare that could apply among all of the 19,906 tickets. After due consideration, this court has determined that this fare, $456.84, as identified by the evidence, is derived by a reasonable method of calculation. Accordingly, this court finds the for the purposes of this suit, a single ticket fare for each of the 19,906 tickets is $456.84.
Based upon the evidence presented at the hearing, the court finds that the defendants now before the court were promptly given notice of the court's temporary restraining order in this case. Plaintiff presented evidence at the hearing that defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, and KBCO continued to engage in the enjoined conduct after receiving notice of the temporary injunction. At the time the temporary restraining order was issued, Seward, Daumann, Haddon, and KBCO were parties to the litigation. Defendants Bonhamd and World Plus were not parties at that time. However, they were given notice of the temporary restraining order and continued to do business regarding the frequent flyer tickets with the named defendants. Plaintiff presented evidence at the hearing that defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, KBCO, Bonhamd and World Plus continued to engage in the enjoined conduct after receiving notice of the temporary restraining order.
The court had made the determination that plaintiff is entitled to damages measured by the full regular fare for the travel that was actually taken by the passengers using improperly transferred tickets. As a result of the defendants' tortious conduct, plaintiff issued a ticket for carriage and was deceived into allowing the passenger to board the airplane and to travel on the invalid ticket. Plaintiff is entitled, therefore, to damages measured by the "loss to the extent of the full regular fare for the mileage over which each one of these fraudulent [ticket] coupons [was] used." See Nashville C & St. L. Ry. Co. v. McConnell, 82 F 65, 68 (cir. Ct. M.D. Tenn. 1897); accord Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Herman W. Sasser and Triad Communication Group, Inc., No. 94-CV-3391-GET (N.D. Ga), Order of May 8, 1996 (Tidwell, J.), at 3-4; see also American Airlines, Inc. v. Christensen, 967 F.2d 410 (10th Cir. 1992). (those who travel on void awards are essentially stowaways, passengers without valid tickets who misappropriate airline services).
Accordingly, it is th determination of this court, for the purposes of this case, that the fare for improperly transferred roundtrip tickets may be property determined by applying the full, undiscounted one-way fare to each segment. Moreover, the plaintiff presented to the court that it determined the requested amount of compensatory damages from each defendant by multiplying the lowest applicable fare, $456.84, by the total number of tickets for which each defendant is responsible. Based upon this formula, plaintiff calculated and presented to this court that it has suffered damages in the amount of $9,093,857.04 in losses attributable to carrying passengers using tickets sold by defendants Bonham and World Plus, of which $521,711.28 is also attributable to defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, and KBCO based upon the brokered tickets they supplied to defendants Bonham and World Plus. These amounts are not cumulative. Specifically, the court concludes that defendants Bonham, World Plus, Seward, Daumann, Haddon, and KBCO are jointly and severally for the $521,711.28 of the $9,093,857.04 attributed to defendants Bonham and World Plus.
Based on the tortious and wilful conduct of the defendants, the court further concludes that punitive damages are warranted in this case. The court awards punitive damages in the amount of $250,000.00 against defendants Bonham and World Plus. The court further awards punitive damages in the amount of $50,000.00 against defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, and KBCO, jointly and severally.
Accordingly, it appears from the findings of fact that the defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, KBCO, Bonham and World Plus knowingly violated the injunctive order of this court. However, considering all of the facts and circumstances of this case, the court does not deem sanctions in the form of additional damages, or otherwise, to be appropriate in this case.
It is hereby ORDERED that compensatory damages are awarded in the amount of $8,572,145.76 in favor of the plaintif against defendants Raejean Bonham and World Plus, jointly and severally, and compensatory damages in the amount of $521,711.28 against defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, and KBCO, jointly and severally with defendants Bonham and World Plus.
It is further ORDERED that punitive damages are AWARDED in the amount of $250,000.00 against defendants Raejean Bonham and World Plus, jointly and severally, and punitive damages in the amount of $50,000.00 against defendants Seward, Daumann, Haddon, and KBCO.
SO ORDERED this 26th day of January, 1998.
/s/ HORACE T. WARD, Senior Judge
United States District Court
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DELTA AIR LINES, INC., Plaintiff, |
) |
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) CIVIL ACTION |
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ROBERT Y. SEWARD et al., Defendants. |
) 1:93-CV-1036-HTW |
This action came on for trial before the Court, Honorable Horace T. Ward, Senior Judge, United States District Court, presiding, and the issues having been duly tried and a decision having been duly rendered and for default judgment as to Elite Travel, Inc., Mileage Club, Inc., Ruth Ashton and Ven F. Cleverly and the court having granted said motion orally,
It is Ordered and Adjudged that the plaintiff Delta Airlines, Inc. recover of the defendants, Raejean Bonham and World Plus, Inc., jointly and severally, the sum of $8,572,145.76 in compensatory damages and $250,000.00 in punitive damages with interest thereon at the rate of 5.341 percent as provided by law, and its cost of action.
It is Further Ordered and Adjudged that the plaintiff Delta Airlines, Inc. recover of the defendants Robert Y. Seward, Lisa Daumann, Keith Haddon and KBCO, Inc. jointly and severally with defendants Raejean Bonham and World Plus, Inc. the sum of $521,711.28 in compensatory damages and $50,000.00 in punitive damages with interest thereon at the rate of 5.341 per cent as provided by law, and its cost of action.
It is Additionally Ordered and Adjudged that the plaintiff Delta Airlines, Inc. recover of the defendants Elite Travel, Inc., Mileage Club, Inc., Ruth Ashton and Van F. Cleverly its cost of action.
DATED at Atlanta, Georgia this 27th day of January, 1998.
/s/ HORACE T. WARD, Senior Judge
United States District Court
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