Opinion
No. 98-55893
March 10, 1999, Argued and Submitted, San Francisco, California . May 25, 1999, Filed
For AMERICAN IC EXCHANGE, INC., Plaintiff - Appellant: George Nowell, Esq., Attorney at Law, Paul B. Arenas, Nathan D. Ide, Esq., LAW OFFICE OF GEORGE W. NOWELL, San Francisco, CA.
For FEDERAL EXPRESS CORPORATION, Defendant - Appellee: David R. Shane, Esq., Robert J. Taitz, Esq., SHANE & TAITZ, San Francisco, CA.
MEMORANDUM fn1
The facts and proceedings in the district court are familiar to the parties and will not be repeated here. The parties have assumed that the treaty commonly known as the "Warsaw Convention" applies to this case. Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Transportation by Air, Oct. 12, 1929, 49 Stat. 3000, T.S. No. 876 (1934), reprinted in note following 49 U.S.C.A. § 40105. But as we have recently held in Mingtai Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Ltd. v. United Parcel Service, 177 F.3d 1142, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 10043, 1999, Taiwan is not bound by the Warsaw Convention; accordingly, the Convention does not apply to the facts here. We have discretion to review issues of law not raised below where the question "presented is purely one of law and either does not depend on the factual record developed below, or the pertinent record has been fully developed." Scott v. Ross, 140 F.3d 1275, 1283 (9th Cir. 1998) (quoting Bolker v. Commissioner, 760 F.2d 1039, 1042 (9th Cir. 1985)). Whether this case is governed by the Warsaw Convention is purely a question of law.
The decision of the district court is vacated, and this case is remanded for proceedings consistent with this court's opinion in Mingtai.
VACATED and REMANDED.