Posted on 02/08/2006 4:55:46 AM PST by billorites
Concord – An African-American woman claims Southwest Airlines unfairly subjected her to its policy requiring large passengers to buy two seats because of her race, a lawyer said yesterday at the start of her federal trial against the airline.
Nadine Thompson of Exeter, president of a cosmetics company, sued Southwest in federal court for discrimination in 2004, saying the company doesn’t uniformly enforce its policy requiring obese passengers to buy two seats.
Thompson, who had flown on Southwest frequently, was on her way to a business conference in Chicago in June 2003 when she boarded her flight at Manchester Airport. Not long after she took a seat in the back of the plane, put the arm rest down and buckled her seat belt, an employee she saw at the check-in counter asked her to get off, Thompson’s lawyer, Neil Osborne, said in opening statements.
Nadine Thompson, president, CEO and co-founder of Warm Spirit Inc. beauty and wellness company in Exeter, is suing Southwest Airlines. (DAVID LANE) She was told at the plane’s loading bridge she needed to buy a second seat for “her comfort and safety,” Osborne said, even though no one was sitting next to her. At the time, the 5-foot-8-inch Thompson weighed between 300 and 330 pounds, according to court records.
When Thompson asked for an explanation, she didn’t get one. “It was never made clear to her that she was too big to fit in her seat,” Osborne told the six-person jury.
She refused to leave and decided to return to her seat. An employee told her that if she left, Southwest would give her a refund, Osborne said. She declined, but she became increasingly agitated and decided to leave — only to be met outside the plane by a few Southwest employees and two Rockingham County Sheriff’s deputies. At that point, she started yelling at the group, at times using profanity.
“Did you ask me to purchase another ticket because I’m too fat to sit in the seat? Did you ask me to purchase another ticket because I’m a black woman?” Thompson said, according to court records.
Thompson, who got a refund, said she was humiliated and suffered emotional distress. “Southwest just asked me to get off the plane either because I’m too fat or too black or just a woman,” she said to people as she was being led to the ticket counter, according to court records.
Thompson is not challenging the passenger seat policy itself, Osborne said.
“This is not a case about weight discrimination,” he said. “This suit is about the inappropriate application of a policy in a discriminatory manner.”
Garry Lane, a Southwest lawyer, said the airline’s “customer of size” policy, introduced in 2002 in response to “squished customer” complaints and safety concerns about evacuations, wasn’t written clearly at the time. Employees made some mistakes in explaining it, but did not act out of racial bias, he said.
The policy specifically didn’t require Thompson to buy a second seat after she was allowed to board, but employees mistakenly had told her that she had to, Lane said.
“It has to be handled discreetly,” Lane said of the passenger-seat issue. “It’s part of the company’s policy.”
The employees who spoke to Thompson made sure the loading bridge was clear of other customers before they asked her to come out, he said. Also, they had noticed her when she boarded the plane, but found it difficult to judge if she needed to buy another seat without seeing her sit down, he said.
The policy states that a customer of size is someone who can’t sit in a seat without having the armrest raised and is sitting on part of the seat next to him. Lane said the Southwest employees will testify that they saw the armrest up most of the time and that Thompson was sitting on part of the adjacent seat.
Lane said none of the workers ever shouted at Thompson, used profanity or touched her. The deputies, who handle security at the airport, did not handcuff her and helped her make flight arrangements to Chicago via another airline, he said.
Thompson was expected to testify today.
I know that. It was a JOKE!
one last note, why did she get on the BACK of the airplane? doesnt she believe in her own civil rights?
Uhhh...we're talking about planes here.
One seat for each cheek. ;-)
I am not saying this woman is poor, but I find it odd that the poor in America are often grossly obese.
"Thompson, who got a refund, said she was humiliated and suffered emotional distress. “Southwest just asked me to get off the plane either because I’m too fat or too black or just a woman,” she said to people as she was being led to the ticket counter, according to court records."
Lawyers..... uggggh.
yea, that would make sense. see, there is an easy solution to all of lifes problems.
I like the policy. I have been stuck seated between two fat slobs on a couple of occasions and I complained!
Airlines need to standardize and Post their seat policies, just like the "no trespassing" signs. You have to post in order to shoot.
I sat two seats over from a large passenger once, it was a domino effect; the guy in the middle was squeezed over to my seat, so I leaned toward the window the whole flight! He REALY should have complained....
Nadine really only weighs 125 pounds. It's that inner child that's the problem.
"..but I find it odd that the poor in America are often grossly obese."
Their poor, but their NOT starving!
Put the arm rest down?
Have we got the wrong preposition going here?
BTW, Good Job on your commercial airplane data;
whether you believe this or not--many air travelers DO NOT know the difference between 737s and 747s.
"Caution Wide Loa"
Maybe it's time for the vehicle code to require a Wide Load sign on any vehicle carrying such a sack of blubber!
There's no freakin' way she "put the armrest down". I'm nowhere NEAR her height/weight ratio and I have a hard time squeezing in. Them seats are made for starving Ethiopians.
From her company's ads for their weight loss product:
"Is your refrigerator your best friend in times of stress, anxiety and life’s difficult transitions? Does your waistline show it? This formula may be for you. Always use with a healthy eating plan, and get plenty of moral support. If you seem to have inherited the tendency to carry those extra pounds from family, this formula can help too."
So much for truth in advertising.
ROTFLMAO!
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