I will say this — it seems that to prove harm, they will have to find at least one person who observed the harm, who will testify. If they do, then at least we’ll know that the bag came out that way, but not whether it was just an unfortunate occurance.
It seems posting the pictures on the internet would work against them, as will the lack of a report made on the scene. I can’t imagine why anybody who had a bag broken open and taped like that wouldn’t immediately go to the baggage damage claim desk and file a claim, just in case things fell out of the bag, or the bag itself had to be replaced.
I’m also imagining how many e-mails the executives must get every single day from irate people claiming their bags were mishandled. I imagine testimony that they get 1000 e-mails a day would discount the argument that they took too long to respond to this one complaint.