A Ryanair passenger whose luggage was lost when he arrived at Prestwick Airport was left stranded for hours in only a pair of shorts and a sweater, a court heard yesterday.
Judge Liam Devally said the airline treated Mr Mark Prouse in an uncaring, indifferent and insensitive manner. He awarded him £1,000 on top of the maximum $400 (£300) he could award him for the loss of his baggage.
Mr Prouse, of The Village, Porterstown, Dublin, told the court he was travelling with his wife and six-year-old daughter to his sister's wedding in Scotland, where he was giving her away and his daughter was a flower girl.
When he arrived at Prestwick his luggage was lost. He was kept waiting around in his shorts and top for three hours before abandoning any hope of his family suitcases turning up.
For the wedding next day he had to hire a suit and buy a bridesmaid's dress for his daughter.
Ms Bernadette Kirby, counsel for Ryanair, submitted that the court was confined to awarding a maximum of $400 under the Warsaw Convention.
Judge Devally held that Mr Prouse was entitled to damages in that he had sought compensation in negligence for stress and anxiety outside the realm of, and as a result of the admitted breach of, his contract with Ryanair.
The court heard that under the Air Navigation and Transport Act, 1936, an airline's liability for luggage lost in transit is confined to $400.
Mr Prouse's luggage contained, among other items, a £400 three-piece suit, a £400 camera, trousers, shirts and shoes valued at £420, a £120 electric razor, his £60 phone charger and his daughter's flower-girl dress worth £90.