A District Court judge has tossed out a consolidated class action suit against JetBlue Airways Corp and three other defendants. The suit stemmed from JetBlue’s having turned over passenger records for an airline security test program.
In dismissing the suit last Friday, Judge Carol Bagley Amon of the United States District Court Eastern District of New York said the passengers within the class action period could not prove damages stemming from the loss of privacy, and that therefore this was not a breach of contract action. The plaintiffs had sought a minimum of $1,000 in damages.
Judge Amon also denied the plaintiff’s claim that JetBlue had unjustly enriched itself. In September 2003, when the first actions were filed, the airline stated that it shared passenger itineraries at the request of the Department of Defense, and that it did not receive any payment for the information.
Another defendant, Torch Concepts, Huntsville, AL, developed a pattern recognition system for the Department of Defense at the behest of the Transportation Security Administration. Torch Concepts matched portions of the JetBlue passenger file to data from Acxiom. They system was established with the goal of improving the security of military installations, according to court papers.
Judge Amon did observe that the Transportation Security Administration “would have had the authority to require JetBlue to share its passenger lists for use in the Torch security study. It bears noting that the TSA did not exercise that authority prior to the events at issue in this case and instead issued a request with which JetBlue voluntarily complied.”
But she also added that “the only damage can be read into the present complaint is a loss of privacy” and that “this is not a damage available in a breach of contract action.”
According to the court papers, the passenger name records included addresses, phone numbers and travel itineraries. Appended data included home ownership information, family demographics, Social Security numbers, and whether passengers owned or leased their cars.
Acxiom Corp., Little Rock, AR and SRS Technologies of Newport Beach, CA were also named as defendants in the suit. SRS added Torch Concepts to an existing contract it had with the Department of Defense, allowing Torch to conduct its test.
“Since the day the lawsuit was filed, Acxiom said we had not violated laws or regulations, and we are delighted the court has agreed with us,” said Dale Ingram, an Acxiom spokesman.
“The local attorneys for Torch Concepts are backpacking in the Montana back country and are unavailable for comment,” according to a spokesperson from Lanier Ford Shaver & Payne P.C., which represented the data processing firm.
Representatives from JetBlue and SRS were not immediately available for comment.
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