Airline Drops Its Appeal of $1,000 Judgment to Couple

An Oxnard couple who won a $1,000 small claims court judgment from World Airways after the airline kicked them off their Europe-bound flight for wearing jogging suits against company policy have learned that the airline has dropped its appeal of the judgment.

The airline said it will pay Donald and Magdalena Colgan $1,009 in the “nearest future,” Donald E. Stevens, a Thousand Oaks attorney the couple retained after learning the airline intended to appeal, said Wednesday.

The case, which was to have gone to court early next month, began last June after the Colgans purchased special half-fare, round-trip tickets from Los Angeles to Frankfurt through a friend, a World Airlines employee, as part of the airline’s “share our world” program for employees’ friends and family.

Unnoticed by the Colgans, the tickets had a dress code: suits or sports coats for men, dresses, skirts or pantsuits for women. The couple flew World Airways from Los Angeles to Baltimore, wearing their new gray jogging suits with no problem, but they were stopped from boarding the Baltimore-to-Frankfurt leg of their flight by World Airways employees who said their jogging suits violated the special-fare dress code. Their trip halted, they flew home, while their luggage went on to Europe.

In December, the Colgans were awarded $1,000, a judgment that the airline appealed. “We ask those people who buy (employee-discount tickets) to adhere to the same dress code, rules and regulations we do for our employees,” said company spokesman Michael Henderson.

Colgan--who still has not seen Europe--said he is pleased with the decision, but joked that whatever vacation destination he decides on next, “I’ll make sure I have a tuxedo ready wherever I fly.”