LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - American Airlines says it has already defeated claims it tricked flight attendants into retiring early, pointing to their earlier failed lawsuit.
A group of former employees sued American in April in Los Angeles federal court over the company's Voluntary Early Out Program that it offered to flight attendants in March 2020. They said they were deceived into early retirement by statements American made.
American had said it would not make a better offer in the future and allegedly pressured employees to take the retirement package by denying requests for leaves of absence and telling them not to wear masks during the COVID pandemic.
After the plaintiffs accepted the deal, American offered a better package later. The company filed a motion to dismiss May 5, arguing these plaintiffs already lost their case in a 2021 lawsuit and are merely repackaging those claims as five common-law claims in the new suit.
"First, Plaintiffs are barred by res judicata from relitigating this issue," the motion says. "Here, Plaintiffs obviously could have brought their common-law claims premised on American's April 2020 statement that it would not make more changes to the first VEOP in the Kincheloe case, as demonstrated by the fact that they challenged that very statement in Kincheloe.
"Second, Plaintiffs released their claims against American. They acknowledge the signed releases as part of the March 2020 VEOP. And those releases expressly cover each of the causes of action they assert here."
And no reasonable person would believe American would not make a new and different VEOP offer if something like a COVID pandemic occurred. Its statements merely meant the one it offered to the plaintiffs would not be improved, American says.
"The written agreement between the parties confirms this understanding: It contains no promise by American to refrain from ever offering another retirement package to its flight attendants," the motion says.