The first of two mediation sessions will be held in Sydney with the adult children of MH370 passengers Rodney and Mary Burrows, and Bob and Cathy Lawton, according to a report in news.com.au.
The six children are seeking more than AD210,000 per passenger under the Montreal Convention. The case is based on negligence on the part of the airline.
Malaysia Airlines might be forced to pay further damages for economic loss, nervous shock and psychological harm unless it can prove it was not negligent.
In its defence before the Federal Court in August the airline presented no arguments against negligence, according to the report.
However, it filed documents claiming the families of the victims were “not entitled to bring a claim for nervous shock and any consequential loss”.
Aviation expert John Dawson of Carneys Lawyers is representing the families in private mediation before retired District Court Judge Richard Rolfe.
Rodney and Mary Burrows and Bob and Cathy Lawton were on the ill-fated flight that went missing on Mar 8, 2014, between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.
Malaysia Airlines was compensated within months for the loss of the Boeing 777-200.
The report said the six children of the two couples, however, had to put their lives on hold and wait two years for the airline to agree to the first of two mediation sessions.
There are similar cases in the US on behalf of 44 passengers including two American citizens. The rest are from China, said the news.com.au report.
The documents lodged in the District Court of Columbia, US, seeking compensation, cite 48 grounds. They include “failure to safeguard pilots, crew and passengers from dangerous cargo such as 2453 kg of lithium ion batteries in the cargo hold”.
The class action suit in the US, unlike that in Australia, will be a “jury trial”, according to the report.
If the plane is found in the southern Indian Ocean, and it is proven the passengers died on the high seas, the action has the possibility of further compensation under Maritime Law.
MH370 disappeared two years ago between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.
The plane stopped just short of Vietnam before turning back and making across the Malay Peninsula. Military radar tracked it over Pulau Perak as well before being seen at the northern tip of Sumatra.
Thereafter, it’s a complete mystery where the aircraft went.
Read further here