The First Class Toilet
The Court Jester presents a real judge-written court opinion selected and edited by Colorado real estate and business attorney Diane Wolfson.
In this 1989 federal Court of Appeals case, you’ll see that the things people sue each other over, and the arguments their attorneys make to justify their clients’ conduct, never fail to amaze.
The appeals court began with a description of the unusual conflict aboard an airplane that led to the lawsuit.
On Easter Sunday in 1985, Sue Vaccaro and her husband were traveling in coach class on TWA flight 803 from New York to San Francisco. Sue Vaccaro describes herself as a dark-skinned and dark-haired American of Spanish-Filipino descent. She is a 1980 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and is employed at KGO-TV as a secretary and researcher in the news department. She is a person of slight weight and build.
While the plane was over the state of Minnesota she needed to use the lavatory. Food service carts blocked access to the lavatories in coach class. She consulted a flight attendant who directed her to use a lavatory in the first class section. She waited in line to use this lavatory.
On the same flight, travelling in first class, was John Wellington Stephens. Texas born and raised, he is a graduate of Harvard College, a former captain in the Air Force, and a deacon in the Presbyterian Church. He describes himself as "an international economics consultant." He is a Caucasian of substantially larger size and height than Sue Vaccaro. He was also interested in using the first class lavatory.
On spotting Sue Vaccaro waiting in line, John Wellington Stephens grabbed her and said in substance, "You're a disgrace in those jeans. Get out of first class where you don't belong. Someone like you would dirty the first class bathroom." He pushed her against the wall. Passengers and crew separated the contestants. John Wellington Stephens made it to the bathroom ahead of Sue Vaccaro. She eventually returned to her seat in coach class.
On arrival in San Francisco, Sue Vaccaro made a citizen's arrest and turned John Wellington Stephens over to the police, who handcuffed him, patted him down and booked him. He was released several hours later.
The court then listed the various claims the parties made against each other in the civil suit arising out of this incident.
Vaccaro charged Stephens with assault and battery; with slander per se in accusing her of a lack of chastity; with the intentional infliction of emotional distress; with negligence; and with violation of the civil rights law of California in that Stephens' intimidation was committed against her by reason of her race, sex, color and ancestry. She sought $160,000 in damages.
John Wellington Stephens denied her allegations. He asserted that he had had the right to use the first class lavatory before she did. He contended that the statements about her chastity which she said were slanderous were "true or substantially true."
Stephens counterclaimed for false arrest and trespass. He also alleged that his first class ticket had given him "a license and a priority to use the lavatory in the first class cabin" and that Sue Vaccaro had "trespassed" on his "license to use the lavatory by preventing his unobstructed access to it," causing him "embarrassment, inconvenience and vexation." He sought "general damages" in excess of $50,000, and punitive damages of $50,000.
At trial, the jury found for Sue Vaccaro and awarded her $8,000, substantially less than the $160,000 she sought. Stephens appealed. The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment for Sue Vacarro and gave the following analysis.
John Wellington Stephens did not show actual damages. He got to the toilet first. That he should start abusing someone waiting to use the bathroom and then contend that his victim caused him undue and unwarranted embarrassment and aggravation is a remarkable contention.
To engage in a temper tantrum is not to suffer actual damage at the hands of a trespasser.
“The theory that Sue Vaccaro trespassed on John Wellington Stephens’ right to use the toilet is silly.”
Attorneys for Stephens asked:
Should a ticketholder of a certain class of air fare, or for that matter a holder of a seat at the symphony or a special event be subject to some one who interferes with and obstructs -- no matter how briefly -- the ticket holder's enjoyment and use of the privileges attendant with the purchase of the ticket, when it’s solely in response to the interfering person's claim against it?
To ask this question is to answer it. The idea that if you sat in the wrong seat at a symphony, a play, a baseball game or a football game and did not get out instantly when the proper ticket holder appeared you could be sued in a federal court is not an attractive notion. It is not merely unattractive. It takes no account of the state of the law.
A better analysis is:
A's child climbs upon the back of B's large dog and pulls its ears. No harm to the dog, or to any other legally protected interest of B. A is not liable to B.
The theory that Sue Vaccaro trespassed on John Wellington Stephens' right to use the toilet is silly.
Diane Wolfson is the managing partner of Sphere Law Firm. She is a Colorado attorney specializing in real estate, business and litigation.