American Airlines is facing legal charges from a customer who claims that one of their flight attendants intentionally ruined her wedding dress.
As reported by New Jersey Local News, the plaintiff, Yewande Oteh, and her family were flying to from New Jersey to Jamaica for her wedding in 2015. While Oteh was checking her bags, an American Airlines ticket agent told her that she could store the gown in the hanging closet onboard the plane. It wasn't until she was boarding the plane that she was told this wouldn't be the case.
The suit alleges that Melanie Masters, the flight attendant, "became indignant and agitated, and began to talk to [the] plaintiff in a hostile, aggressive way, instructing her that the closet space was not for passengers." Instead, the dress was stored by itself in an overhead bin.
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Oteh claims that Masters put something in the bin later on during the flight. At the end of the flight, the bin was opened by airport workers to find that the dress was reportedly soaked in red wine. According to the 31-page lawsuit, Oteh believes that the flight attendant "egregiously" destroyed her dress intentionally.
Now, Oteh is suing American Airlines not only for the cost of the damaged dress but also for physical and emotional distress for a total of $3.4 million. In the suit, Oteh explains that she had to have her sister fly to Florida to purchase her a new dress after being unable to find one where they were staying. The suit is asking for $850,000 for each count of negligence which includes both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress as well as for negligent hiring and retention.
American Airlines has responded saying that they are reviewing the lawsuit. As for the flight attendant, Melanie Masters spoke to Courier-Post and says, "It really didn't go like that at all."
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