Choice of jurisdiction: the compulsory nature of article 33 of the Montreal Convention and the need of a consistent application

In the 7th December 2011 judgment, the First Civil Chamber of the French Court of Cassation affirmed that the jurisdiction chosen by the plaintiff under Article 33 of the Montreal Convention must be intended as the sole jurisdiction before which a claim can be pursued. As a consequence of the aforementioned principle, the Court reiterated that Article 33 overrides all domestic rules that could apply in any particular case. Proceedings were brought by some of the victims’ families after the crash in Venezuela of an MD82 aircraft chartered by Newvac (the contractual carrier, established in Florida) and operated by West Caribbean Airways (the Colombian actual carrier) on August 2005 while flying from Panama City to Martinique. Such proceedings were commenced under Montreal Convention both against Newvac and West Caribbean Airlines before the US federal courts of Florida.