Families of Victims Seek Damages in Seattle Court : Boeing Officials Want Crash Lawsuits Tried in Japan

After a Boeing 747 jumbo jet crashed into a mountain in Japan on Aug. 12, 1985, the chairman of the Boeing Co. made a special bow to Japanese custom by writing personal letters to the families of each of the 520 victims.

In another gesture to Japanese custom, Boeing paved a path up the steep mountainside to the scene and placed a white granite memorial as a shrine to the dead.

Boeing now wants lawsuits resulting from the crash tried in Japanese courts because of another custom: the American custom of granting large cash liability awards.

Families of 80 crash victims are suing both Boeing and Japan Air Lines, which owned and operated the jetliner, in King County Superior Court in Seattle, where Boeing has its headquarters. The suits were filed last summer, just before Washington’s new tort reform act took effect, limiting both damage awards and awards for “pain and suffering.”

The aircraft manufacturer and the airline have asked the court to dismiss the suits, so they can be refiled in Japan, where the crash occurred and where Japan Air Lines has its headquarters.

Boeing argues that virtually all of the evidence produced by the accident investigation--the wreckage, cockpit voice recorders and photographs of the crash site--is in Japan and that it will be difficult and expensive to move the suit to Washington.

But the real reason, attorneys claim, is money.

“The only reason why these cases were filed in this jurisdiction is because these claimants believe that they can recover more money here than in Japan for the losses which they have sustained,” George Tompkins, JAL’s attorney, wrote in court papers.

The Japanese, by tradition, are less litigious than Americans. Settlements in liability cases are usually lower than in American courts.

Japanese courts have no juries. If the suits in the case were moved to Japan, the judge would determine the damages, including medical and funeral expenses, lost income and “solatium,” or compensation for “pain and suffering.”

Lost income is determined by a mathematical formula. Solatium awards are usually set within a range based on previous cases. For example, in automobile accidents, the solatium award for the death of a family’s main wage earner has been between 15 million and 18 million yen, or between $100,000 and $120,000.

Awards for the deaths of mothers, children, single men or women and the elderly are lower.

“In Japan, the court determines the facts; the court awards,” said John Owen Haley, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and a specialist in Japanese law. “Clearly, the U.S. case involves the greater gamble. The potential upper limit is much, much higher.”

Japan Air Lines and Boeing say they will not contest liability if the cases are moved to Japan.

Donald W. Madole, a Washington, D.C., lawyer representing the victims’ families, argues that the case belongs in a court in Seattle because the jet was manufacturered there.

“This is a products-liability case,” he said.

The suit contends that the crash occurred because Boeing incorrectly repaired the 11-year-old plane after it made a hard landing in 1978, scraping its tail on the runway.

After the scrape, Boeing sent a repair team to Japan with a new aft-pressure bulkhead, which was installed in the rear of the passenger cabin. The bulkhead separates the cabin, which is pressurized, from the tail section, which is not.

Investigators believe the crash was caused when the bulkhead gave way as the plane was climbing after takeoff from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. When the bulkhead came apart, pressurized air was blown back into the tail, ripping it from the plane. The plane’s four hydraulic lines, which run through the tail, were severed, cutting off the power to steer the plane.

The suit also contends that Boeing should have designed 747s to withstand cabin decompression.

If moved, the cases would be among the first major aircraft litigation tried in Japanese courts. In 1982, after a Japan Air Lines pilot crashed a plane into Tokyo Bay, killing 23 persons, no suits were filed. The pilot, it turned out, was mentally unstable, and investigators concluded that he deliberately crashed the plane into shallow waters. Japan Air Lines apologized for the crash and made settlements with the victims’ families.

The 1985 crash was more complicated and more traumatic. It ranks as the worst single-plane disaster in the history of commercial aviation. Of the 524 passengers and crew members, only four survived.

After 20 months, Japanese accident investigators are just now preparing to announce the results of their effort.

The way the accident occurred was particularly gruesome. Because the crippled plane flew 40 minutes before slamming into the mountain, many of the victims had time to write final notes to their spouses and children--messages that were published in the Japanese press.

Families of victims were angry with the airline for both the crash and the way it was handled: Because the crash occurred on a remote mountainside, families had difficulty reaching the site to collect the remains of their kin as Japanese custom demands.

They were angry, too, that reporters were allowed on the scene.

Two days after the crash, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office was asked by relatives of 240 victims to begin a criminal investigation. A day later, JAL’s president, Yasumoto Takgi, took responsibility for the crash and resigned in shame. Boeing acknowledged soon after the accident that it had incorrectly repaired portions of the bulkhead.

A month after the crash, Boeing sent letters to the families, something the aircraft manufacturer had never done before.

“Human life is so precious that it is impossible to place a value on it,” T. A. Wilson, Boeing’s chairman, wrote. His letter went on to describe Boeing’s efforts to place value on the lives lost on Flight 123 and explained that Japan Air Lines soon would begin negotiations for compensation by the two companies.

So far, the airline has negotiated settlements with 97 families for $47.3 million and has made settlement offers that exceed $126 million in 298 other cases. JAL declined to provide further details of the settlements.

But those who have sued say they think the airline and Boeing were more involved with legal maneuvering than admitting fault and accepting responsibility.

Takashi Itoh, the father of one of the victims, said in an affidavit filed with the court that the apologies made by Boeing and Japan Air Lines were insincere. He said he joined a group organized by victims’ families to demand compensation from Boeing and the airline.

“We are sorry to say that we can find no indication that they have reflected on their responsibility for causing this terrible disaster,” Itoh said.