By Chung Hyun-chae
A New York court will likely dismiss a suit which Korean Air junior flight attendant Kim Do-hee filed in March against former Korean Air Executive Vice President Heather Cho.
An Chi-yong, a Korean-American, Saturday posted on his blog “Secret of Korea” what appears to be a written decision by Robert L. Nahman, a judge on the U.S. Supreme Court of the State of New York County of Queens who is in charge of the “nut rage” case, to announce that he is dismissing the case.
It is unknown how he obtained the document which is dated Dec. 16, and it needs to be checked whether it is an authentic version because it does not carry the judge’s signature. Korean Air officials said Cho’s side has not received the document yet.
In the written decision, the judge said it would be better if a Korean court dealt with the case because the plaintiff, the defendants and witnesses reside in Korea and all evidence is in Korea as well.
“Although plaintiff’s counsel has stated that plaintiff’s physicians would consent to the jurisdiction of New York, the fact remains that all of the Korean witnesses are all beyond New York’s subpoena power,” the document reads.
If the document is authentic, the judge will accept Cho’s repeated request that the New York court dismiss the suit so that she can stand trial in Korea.
Another victim, Park Chang-jin, a chief flight attendant of the airline, also filed a lawsuit against Cho in the U.S. in July, but another judge is in charge of the case.
Both Kim and Park demanded compensation for verbal and physical abuse from Cho who was dissatisfied with the way Kim served her macadamia nuts on a Korean Air flight taxiing at New York’s JFK International Airport in December 2014.