ANDREWS v. UNITED AIRLINES, INC.
24 F.3d 39 (1994)
Billie Jean ANDREWS, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
UNITED AIRLINES, INC., a corporation; Does 1 through 50, inclusive, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 92-16663.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted February 10, 1994.
Decided May 13, 1994.
Andrew Zabronsky, Susie Injijian, Deborah M. Heller, Sterns, Walker & Lods, San Francisco, CA, for plaintiff-appellant.
Philip R. Diamond, James C. Nielson, Peter M. Hart, Wright, Robinson, McCammon, Osthimer & Tatum, San Francisco, CA, for defendant-appellee.
Before: FLETCHER, KOZINSKI and TROTT, Circuit Judges.
Opinion by Judge KOZINSKI.
KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge.
We are called upon to determine whether United Airlines took adequate measures to deal with that elementary notion of physics— what goes up, must come down. For, while the skies are friendly enough, the ground can be a mighty dangerous place when heavy objects tumble from overhead compartments.
IDuring the mad scramble that usually follows hard upon an airplane's arrival at the gate, a briefcase fell from an overhead compartment and seriously injured plaintiff Billie Jean Andrews. No one knows who opened the compartment or what caused the briefcase to fall, and Andrews doesn't claim that airline personnel were involved in stowing the object or opening the bin. Her claim, rather, is that the injury was foreseeable and the airline didn't prevent it.
The district court dismissed the suit on summary judgment, and we review de novo. Dorsey v. National Enquirer, Inc.,973 F.2d 1431, 1434 (9th Cir.1992). This is a diversity action brought in California, whose tort law applies. Id. II
1. Dr. Thompson testified British Airways began using restraining netting in 1989. ER 53. Apparently at least one other airline, Virgin Atlantic, has followed suit. See Kevin Rafferty, Tricky Thoughts Aloft, Financial Times, May 2, 1992 (Travel), at XI.
2. He recognized that this was not a very practical solution from either the airlines' or the passengers' point of view.
3. Curiously, neither side introduced these reports into the record. This proved fatal to Andrews's claim below, as the district court, relying on Cooper v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.,945 F.2d 1103, 1105 (9th Cir.1991), premised its dismissal on plaintiff's failure to present evidence that any of the 135 incidents bore "some rational relationship" to her own, so as to show United was on notice of a hazard. ER 124. While the district court may have been correct were notice in doubt, here United recognized the hazard as early as 1987. See p. 40-41 supra. The question is whether it did enough to address it.