The Scope of Article 2081 of the Civil Code: A Comment on Negist Makonnen et al v. Ethiopian Airlines, Inc.

Abstract

Synopsis of the Case On September 5, 1961, an Ethiopian Airlines Douglas C-47A aircraft crashed during a chartered flight from Addis Ababa to Asmara. As a result, some people were killed; some others were injured. Relatives of passengers who were killed in the accident and those persons who sustained injuries brought action, under the law of air carriage, against Ethiopian Airlines, the owner and operator of the aircraft. The defendant denied liability as a carrier1 for the aircraft was, when the accident occurred, chartered to Coronado Petroleum Corporation. The High Court of Addis Ababa however held that Ethiopian Airlines was the carrier for the purpose of the Ethiopian law of carriage by air.  Interestingly, the court also maintained that the airlines would not anyway escape liability under Article 2081 of the Civil Code as owner of the thing which caused the damage. The later dictum is the cause for this comment.