“Nut-Rage” Executive Tries to Move Money Grab Trial from US to Korean Courts
Just when you thought this story had gone away it is back:
Cho Hyun-ah, the South Korean airline executive accused of assaulting cabin crew for serving macadamia nuts in a plastic bag, must wait until September to find out whether a lawsuit filed against her in New York is to be dismissed.
Kim Do-hee, the flight attendant on Korean Air who served Cho the nuts last December, filed a lawsuit at a Queens county court in March, South Korean outlet Newsis reported.
Kim’s lawsuit claims Cho “poured insults and assaulted [Kim] in the cabin,” and that not only was she “traumatized” by the experience but also “suffered damage to her career and reputation,” Yonhap reported.
Cho’s legal advisers requested the case be transferred to South Korea on July 13, on the premise the parties involved were South Korean nationals and all material in the investigation is written in Korean. [UPI]
You can read the rest at the link, but at this point this all just looks like a money grab against Cho. If this flight attended was traumatized by criticism about how to serve macadamia nuts then I would not want this flight attendant every working on an aircraft ever again anyway. If “nut rage” was so traumatizing how would this person react during an inflight emergency?
Call it a money grab if you want … but keep in mind that Kim Do Hee is for all intents and purposes blackballed from working at any other airline – so she is stuck working at a company where she is no doubt considered a pariah. And this is all because of Cho’s idiocy.
I would like to see proof that she is blackballed. Has she put in other job applications? I bet daddy Cho would hook Kim up with a job at another airline just to make this whole thing go away. She is trying to get a pay day which US courts are well known for. If Cho gets this trial moved to Korea where daddy Cho has more influence, the hopes of payday decreases greatly.
You don’t blackball someone and leave proof that you’re doing it. And another airlines isn’t going to tell her that KAL called and said don’t hire her. They’ll simply say they are not hiring.
Also, I think getting this lawsuit moved to Korea could backfire on the Cho family. Heather Cho’s ongoing legal battle is already a media circus. Having a trial with Kim Do Hee (and now also the purser Park Chang-jin has filed a lawsuit) in Korea not only adds to the media circus, it potentially complicates Heather Cho’s legal proceedings. Quietly settling a lawsuit out of court in the US, even if it’s for a ridiculous sum of money, would make more sense. Especially if the settlement comes with a gag order.