The High Court ordered Air France to pay Lidia Ivanova €67,490 after assessing her dependency claim arising from the death of her son, Maksim Ivanova, in the 2009 crash of Flight AF447.
In a judgment delivered on 6 December 2013, Ms Justice Irvine recorded that Air France admitted liability for the collision that caused Maksim’s death. The airline had already paid €17,600 under European legislation, and the judge said that payment had to be credited against the claim.
The case concerned compensation for mental distress and support Maksim had provided to his mother. The court awarded €25,400 in solatium, the statutory maximum for mental distress, noting that Ivanova was the only statutory dependent seeking damages because Maksim’s father had waived his right to a share.
Ivanova had claimed that her son contributed to holidays, household services and transport, among other forms of support. She withdrew claims for regular cash contributions and taxi savings. The judge accepted that Maksim had contributed to an expensive holiday for his mother’s 50th birthday, but considered the annual holiday contribution claimed too high. The court assessed his likely future contribution at €7 a week, producing an award of €5,530.
The judge rejected the claim that Maksim would have provided 12.5 hours of services each week. She found that some of the time they spent together was ordinary contact between a parent and adult child. But she accepted that he regularly helped his mother, including with shopping, some household jobs and cutting the grass. The court assessed the likely continuing support at seven hours a week, valued at €8.60 an hour, and awarded €47,834 for household services.
For transport, the judge accepted that Maksim sometimes drove his mother to or from work or shopping. The court valued that support at €20 a week and awarded €15,800. It rejected the claim for a contribution to costs associated with an apartment in Estonia because bills or other documents had not been produced to support the amount claimed.
The awards totalled €94,564 before deductions. The court deducted €2,375 to reflect the value, including an accelerated-benefit adjustment, of assets Ivanova received after her son’s death. It also deducted €24,700 to account for Air France’s earlier €17,600 payment with interest at the Courts Act rate of eight per cent. The resulting award was €67,490.