Delta Passenger Mauled By Emotional Support Animal, Sues Owner, Airline

A Delta Air Lines passenger, who was mauled by his co-passenger's emotional support dog on a flight from Atlanta to San Diego in June 2017, is suing the airline company as well as the owner of the animal.

A copy of the lawsuit filed in Fulton County state court by Marlin Jackson from Alabama was obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The suit alleged that Jackson was sitting on a window seat when a dog belonging to Ronald Kevin Mundy Jr. from North Carolina, a military service member with the Marine Corps, suddenly started attacking his face and pinned him against the window of the plane.

“While Mr. Jackson was securing his seatbelt, the animal began to growl” at him, according to the lawsuit. The “chocolate lab pointer mix,” which was on Mundy’s lap, then began biting him in the face, multiple times.

The lawsuit further alleged “the attack was briefly interrupted when the animal was pulled away from Mr. Jackson. However, the animal broke free and again mauled Mr. Jackson’s face.”

As a result of the attack, the victim suffered lacerations and punctures to his face and upper body, requiring 28 stitches and medical treatment. In fact, Jackson “bled so profusely that the entire row of seats had to be removed from the airplane,” the lawsuit stated.

In addition, he claimed to have sustained permanent injury and loss of sensation in certain areas of his face, resulting in emotional distress and mental anguish. Also, “his entire lifestyle has been severely impaired by this attack” as he experienced a loss of income or earning potential, even as his medical bills piled up.

The lawsuit said the dog in question was “so large it encroached into the aisle seat and window seat,” citing the fact as evidence of negligence on Delta’s part to allow a passenger on board with a large dog which did not require a kennel, as is standard protocol for pets on planes. The dog was also allegedly not independently verified by the airline company as an emotional support animal, ensuring that it was properly trained and was aware of the necessary restraints to do no harm to other passengers.

“The harm of large, untrained and unrestrained animals in the cabin of an airplane was reasonably foreseeable to Delta, or should have been,” the suit stated, adding that Delta “knew or should have known that subjecting passengers and animals to close physical interaction in the confined, cramped and anxious quarters of the cabin, presented a reasonably foreseeable harm.”

The suit also held Mundy partially responsible for the attack, stating that he “knew or in the exercise of reasonable care, should have known that his large animal was foreseeably dangerous, especially when confined to the cramped and anxious quarters of the passenger cabin of an airplane.”

It was not clear when the suit was actually filed. It sought damages for pain and suffering, lost wages, medical expenses and emotional pain, suffering, and mental anguish.