El al Israel Airlines, Ltd. v. Tsui Yuan Tseng

Decided January 12, 1999. Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 97-475 · 525 U.S. 155 (1999) · Cited 361 times

Holding

The Warsaw Convention precludes a passenger from maintaining an action for personal injury damages under local law when her claim does not satisfy the conditions for liability under the Convention.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–1.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Air France v. Saks · 470 U.S. 392 (1985)
• Zicherman Ex Rel. Estate of Kole v. Korean Air Lines Co. · 516 U.S. 217 (1996)
• Eastern Airlines, Inc. v. Floyd · 499 U.S. 530 (1991)
• Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp. · 331 U.S. 218 (1947)
• Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr · 518 U.S. 470 (1996)
• CSX Transportation, Inc. v. Easterwood · 507 U.S. 658 (1993)
• Sumitomo Shoji America, Inc. v. Avagliano · 457 U.S. 176 (1982)
• Department of Revenue of Ore. v. ACF Industries, Inc. · 510 U.S. 332 (1994)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Medellin v. Texas · 552 U.S. 491 (2008)
• Monasky v. Taglieri · 589 U.S. 68 (2020)
• Olympic Airways v. Husain · 540 U.S. 644 (2004)
• Abbott v. Abbott · 560 U.S. 1 (2010)
• Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians · 526 U.S. 172 (1999)
• Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon · 548 U.S. 331 (2006)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1999). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).