American Airlines has asked the federal court in Honolulu to dismiss a civil rights lawsuit filed against the Texas-based carrier by Theresa Purcell, a wheelchair-bound American Samoan woman who is unable to walk and who was allegedly “forced to crawl across the asphalt of an airport tarmac and up the metal stairs of the airplane and then on to her seat”.

The incident allegedly occurred in 2013 at the San Diego airport in California when Purcell was boarding an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles, to return to Hawai’i. Purcell, who filed the suit on June 5 this year, claimed she sustained physical and emotional injuries and, in her complaint, she states seven causes of action.

American Airlines says that as a matter of law, all of the plaintiff’s statutory claims for relief should be dismissed.

In particular, the airline says three causes of action — Negligence, violation of the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA); violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); and Discriminatory Practices, Violation of the Hawaii Revised Statutes— “should be dismissed with prejudice.”

According to the defendant, the plaintiff failed to state legally cognizable claims for relief.

For example, the defendant says there are 64 separate subsections of the ACAA but in her complaint, the plaintiff does not refer to any particular subsection or regulation, much less explain how she believes the regulation was violated by American Airlines.

As with her first cause of action in the ACAA, the defendant says the plaintiff also failed to make a specific claim in her fifth case — an alleged violation of the ADA. “Plaintiff points without specificity to the entirety of the ADA and posits that American is somehow liable for violation of an unidentified provision within that comprehensive statutory regime,” the defendant argues.

“The vagueness with which she pleads the fifth cause of action is problematic. But far more significant an obstacle is the fact that Plaintiff cannot state an actionable claim against American under the ADA in the context of this case,” the airline argued.

As to the plaintiff’s claim of Discriminatory Practices in Violation of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, the defendant points out that the alleged incident took place at an airport in San Diego, California, while boarding a scheduled flight for Los Angeles.

Therefore, says American, Hawai’i statutory provisions are not applicable to alleged events that took place in California.

The federal court in Honolulu has scheduled a hearing in September this year on the defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint.

American Airlines’ spokesperson Michelle Mohr told Samoa News last month that she couldn’t comment on the specifics of the case, because it is now in litigation. However, she pointed out that the airline is committed to providing a safe, pleasant travel experience “for all of our customers,” and “complying with all Department of Transportation regulations.”