MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2019) A Russian family of three suing national airline Aeroflot in a US court for missing a flight to Chicago has a slim chance of winning the class action/RICO case, a US attorney told Sputnik.
Dmitry, Svetlana and Alexander Badurin seek hefty damages from Aeroflot and Finland's Finnair for missing the connecting flight from Moscow via Helsinki because the line to register was too long. They have invited other passengers who have missed their Aeroflot or Finnair flight to join and, separately, accused the two of extorting money for new tickets under the anti-racketeering RICO act.
"The chances of success are remote, and far exceeded by the risk of being sanctioned," Bruce Marks of Marks & Sokolov, a former Pennsylvania state senator, told Sputnik.
He argued there was no basis to seek class action status because no one else appeared to have missed this particular flight.
"Three people, at most, appeared to miss the flight because one of the three had trouble walking.� There is no basis to suggest anyone else missed the flight.� The class action allegations are frivolous and subject to sanction," the attorney pointed out.
The RICO claim also appears to lack substance, he added, due to absence of wire or mail fraud allegations or evidence that the airlines operated a separate fraudulent enterprise for at least one and a half years, which would be sufficient duration.
Marks said the US court could impose a fine on the lawyer for the plaintiffs and order him to pay the defendants' attorney fees since his clients would not know that the RICO and class action allegations were frivolous. The plaintiffs could be sanctioned if their testimony is found to be false.�
