Delta has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the airline of hacking into a computer of a passenger advocacy organization on the grounds that the plaintiff, FlyersRights.org founder Kate Hanni, made the allegedly stolen emails public by forwarding them to an industry discussion group.

Further, the airline claims, the Hanni lawsuit failed to show that any harm had been done to FlyersRights.org by Delta’s having forwarded those emails to a Delta contractor.

"Hanni herself initiated the chain of communications through which the emails reached Delta," the airline said in a motion filed on Nov. 9 in U.S. District Court for the Southern Division District of Texas in Houston.

Hanni’s lawsuit claims that Delta used stolen email to harm FlyersRights.org by derailing the group’s efforts to push through legislation aimed at limiting airplane tarmac delays to three hours.

In its motion for dismissal, the airline responded: "The harm, the failure of Congress to pass the legislation or Congress’ referral of the bill to the House and Senate committees, preceded the allegedly unlawful, overt act — that is, the unauthorized access of Hanni’s email account and personal files. The latter event could not have caused or contributed to the harm."

The lawsuit claims that Delta forwarded the email in question to one of its contractors, Metron Aviation of Dulles, Va., which then used the "hacked" email in an attempt to discredit FlyersRights.

The suit also claims that forwarding the email to Metron resulted in the firing of a Metron employee, Frederick Foreman, who had been analyzing FAA data on delays and passing that information to FlyersRights.org.

The lawsuit asks for $1 million in actual damages and $10 million in punitive damages.

In interviews last week, Hanni and her attorney acknowledged that she had sent the email referenced by Delta to an email address that turned out to belong to Monique Sears, the administrator of the aviation listserv known as Mifnet. Sears is also the U.S. director of government and legal affairs for KLM, which is a codeshare partner and operates a joint venture with Delta.

A listserv is an online service that forwards email to an entire list of subscribers simultaneously. It is a communication tool commonly used by business associations and interest groups to discuss industry issues.

The email was sent to the listserv, Gibson and Hanni said, at the request of Kevin Mitchell, who is the chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, a Mifnet subscriber and a supporter of FlyersRights.org’s lobbying efforts to have Congress limit tarmac delays.

"Kate was requested to send the information by Kevin Mitchell," said Hanni’s lawyer, Jason Gibson. "And she did."

In an email to Travel Weekly this week, Mitchell wrote: "On Sept. 24, 2009, a post was made in the airline industry electronic discussion forum called the Mifnet … a member was looking for an expert on factors that impact JFK airport operations. I forwarded the email to Kate Hanni with the message, ‘Please pass along to Dr. Foreman. … Tell him to move quickly.’ … I had been made aware of his experience in this area and knew there would likely be many qualified consultants on the Mifnet. I did not request that Ms. Hanni contact or send information to the Mifnet or its administrators."

Hanni confirmed the text of Mitchell’s email request. But while she acknowledged that she forwarded the email to Foreman and Sears, she added: "I had no idea who I was responding to. I trusted Kevin Mitchell to be sending Dr. Foreman in the right direction."

Hanni’s forwarded emails to Sears were next forwarded to Delta, which forwarded them to Metron, Delta said.

"The sole alleged link between Delta and the supposed conspiracy is the allegation that Delta was in possession of the Hanni emails," Delta said.

But Gibson said the emails referenced by Delta represent only a portion of the "thousands" of emails that Foreman claimed Metron showed him when the company fired him. According to Gibson, Foreman said that the rest of the emails appeared to have been acquired by hacking Hanni’s computer.

The Delta response, Gibson said, fails to address where all of those emails came from.

Delta, however, argues that claims of other email having been forwarded are immaterial to a case based on allegations of a conspiracy.

Delta’s motion for dismissal argues that Hanni’s "complaint fails to allude to any reason whatsoever that Metron would oppose the legislation, much less a reason common with Delta, which could form the basis for an agreement on the objective of the conspiracy."