Court Ruling May Affect 4 Suits Involving Copters
Four Orange County lawsuits involving fatal crashes of Marine Corps helicopters could be jeopardized by a court decision overturning $4.7 million in awards to families of servicemen killed in military air crashes, attorneys said Wednesday.
“Obviously, it could pose a potential problem,” said Wylie A. Aitken of Santa Ana of the decision by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. That decision granted immunity from liability to defense contractors who built the aircraft involved in the accidents.
The court agreed with defense attorneys in three lawsuits involving three crashes that suppliers of military equipment cannot be held liable in cases where the United States is immune and where the equipment in question conformed to government specifications.
‘Absurd,’ Says Attorney
Aitken is handling two of the four Orange County lawsuits against Sikorsky Aircraft Division, which manufactured Marine helicopters that crashed near San Clemente Island in June, 1984, and off the coast of Japan in May, 1985, killing 21 servicemen.
Aitken said it was “absurd” for the court to extend the military’s immunity to the manufacturers, particularly when basing it on government specifications.
“Sikorsky wants to sell helicopters, so they go to the government with a design and say, ‘Here, you need this,’ ” Aitken said. If the government decides to buy the equipment, he said, it approves the specifications.
“It’s one thing if I went to somebody and told them to build this thing for my car and gave them all the specifications,” he said. “That’s an individualized, custom item. But that’s not what’s going on here.
“There are no helicopter design geniuses on the military’s staff. They’re all with Sikorsky. How can Sikorsky be held immune for all these crashes and all they did was get some military bureaucrat to stamp their specifications?” he said.
Attorney Mark P. Robinson Jr. of Santa Ana, who represents the families of the pilot and co-pilot killed in the crash near San Clemente Island, said Wednesday that he had not seen the appeals court decision, “but a gut reaction is that it really seems like a denial of equal protection under the law.”
As far as the issue of government-established specifications goes, Robinson said: “Even the Marine Corps said our helicopter (the Sikorsky CH-53E) did not meet specifications because they had to put in claims for operational changes. And that was even before there were any fatal crashes.”
‘Very Disappointed’
Robinson said he didn’t know what impact the opinion might have on his and the other Orange County cases because a decision in one district “might not mean a lot in all of the other districts.”
Attorney Thierry Patrick Colaw of Santa Ana said he did not know “what the applicability of this is on the events of May 6,” when a Marine Corps CH-53D helicopter carrying 17 people plunged into the sea while en route from Japan to Okinawa.
“I must say I’m very disappointed by the court’s decision, but until I see the opinion I can’t say much more,” said Colaw, who filed a suit on behalf of the pilot’s and co-pilot’s families.
The suits in Wednesday’s ruling involved crashes of two helicopters, one of them made by Sikorsky, and one jet fighter.
