A potential sea of change is at hand in aviation product liability cases due to a ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court. The legal principles that have served as the foundation for any civil lawsuits against manufacturers for over two decades are now up in the air.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the General Aviation Revitalization Act (GARA). The airline industry welcomed GARA as providing a degree of certainty regarding liability cases. Courts around the country, at all levels, tended to give GARA the benefit of the doubt over and above state laws.
That changed with Washington State’s ruling in Estate of Becker v. Avoc. Corp. The suit was filed by the family of a deceased doctor who had died in a private plane crash. The portion of the case that reverberated nationally was when the court ruled that federal law does not supersede state law in liability cases.
This was of particular relevance to the airline industry, where it was accustomed that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had final oversight authority. Nor is the Becker ruling confined to the state courts. A federal appellate court ruled in Sikkelee v. Precision Airmotive Corp that federal law does not automatically extend to a state liability claim.
In short, states are free to establish liability laws that are stricter than the FAA might apply.
Lawsuits against aviation manufacturers are governed by the principle of strict liability. This is a legal doctrine that makes it easier for a plaintiff to win a lawsuit because it puts the focus on the quality of the product itself, rather than on the people or company making it.
Under strict liability, honest ignorance is no excuse. The plaintiff needs to simply prove that the product caused the injury or death, that it was defective at the time it left the manufacturer and that the product was used in a manner that a reasonable person might foresee.
That can present a significant challenge to the airline industry. It’s been noted that the so-called “nose-to-tail” manufacturing in a single locale doesn’t happen anymore. Parts come from all over the world and can include items as basic as rivets and screws. The liability potential drastically increases.
It’s not surprising that personal injury lawyers and the airline industry have drastically different interpretations of what will happen because of the Becker and Sikkelee cases.
Attorneys and plaintiffs will benefit from a potentially lower bar to clear when it comes to providing strict liability. State laws also tend to favor jury leeway in deciding damage awards, something that works to the benefit of plaintiffs.
Those within the industry itself fear the uncertainty that has been unleashed. “It was possible in the past for manufacturers to show that their products were manufactured to the specifications required by the experts at the FAA and that was enough,” said Lon Sobel, who is both a pilot and aviation law professor in the state of California. Now, the FAA is no longer the final word.