Family sues Italian national airline
HIGH POINT — Josephine Tyburski spent 44 years working for Alitalia SpA — the Italian national airline — in New York. After receiving a diagnosis of lung cancer in 2004, she came to High Point to be with her daughter and to get medical treatment here.
She and her family expected that the airline would help take care of her. It had promised to do so by paying for extra medical bills, said Tyburski’s daughter Georgina Bell, 35.
It didn’t end up that way.
Tyburski’s heirs filed a lawsuit in Guilford County in late April. They still haven’t heard anything from the airline. Not even a response to the attorney they hired.
When Tyburski fell ill, the airline promised to pick up her medical bills, Bell said. They made good on that promise. Until she died.
Then the family started receiving collections notices for $10,000 in unpaid medical fees. So Bell called up Alitalia to find out what was going on. Executives at the airline told her the bills had been paid. But when she asked for canceled checks to prove that to the collections agencies, nothing was sent.
The collections proceedings have been put on hold while the case against Alitalia goes forward, Bell said. They’re unsure what will happen next since the airline has not responded to the suit. Now they’re weighing whether or not they need to file a case in a New York court to get Alitialia’s attention.
Messages left at Alitalia’s North American headquarters in New York were not returned.
The family is seeking the value of Tyburski’s retirement package — about $190,000 — and the cost of the medical bills. The airline has made good on a promise to cover the medical insurance of Josephine’s husband, George Tyburski, until next summer.
Bell said the issue isn’t so much about the money as it is about doing what’s right. Her mother spent much of her life in Altalia’s service.
“For much of my life, Christmas, New Year’s, whenever they needed her, she was there,” Bell said. “It’s a matter of principle”
Tyburski started at the airline as a 19-year-old service agent and rose to supervisor for Alitalia’s operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
It made Tyburski, an Italian immigrant who came to America as a child, proud to work for the airline because of its connection to her home, Bell said. And she enjoyed being able to travel.
The Tyburskis — married for 40 years — planned to retire to North Carolina to be near their daughter. When Josephine became ill, she came here for treatment. She died in May 2005.
At the time of her death, she was preparing to retire from the company. After she died, the family negotiated with Alitalia for what would have been her pension — one week’s pay for every three years of work, George Tyburski said. By late July they’d come to terms, but then the airline stopped acknowledging their correspondence, Bell said. They hired a lawyer and still were unable to get a response. So Bell said her family felt compelled to take their case to court.
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